The Sleight Doctor 🃏
🍉
@ApostateEnglishman@mastodon.world
@MostlyTato@mstdn.social @broadwaybabyto@zeroes.ca If I remember rightly, cowpox, which is unpleasant but rarely fatal, confers immunity to smallpox, which often is. Which may be one reason (aside from pasteurization not having been invented yet) that folks were prepared to accept the risks posed by raw milk!
But I'm only speculating.
Adam Jacobs 🇺🇦
@statsguy@mas.to
@ApostateEnglishman@mastodon.world @MostlyTato@mstdn.social @broadwaybabyto@zeroes.ca You remember rightly. Cowpox does indeed confer immunity to smallpox. In fact Jenner's smallpox vaccine in the 18th century was based on cowpox.
And that's why we call it a vaccine: from the Latin vacca, meaning cow.
Whether that has anything to do with drinking raw milk in times gone by I have no idea.