May 17: Edward Jenner Day?
Mar. 10th, 2011 07:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
browngirl Tigerlily and I were chatting in the car just now, and reflecting that if Talk Like A Pirate Day could become an international phenomenon, why not Edward Jenner's birthday? I mean, it's often said of him that his work has saved more lives than any other person's (which is of course arguable, but I think he has a good case, and has doubtless saved millions). He's a clear case of the triumph of science over ignorance, of progress over misery.
OTOH, my first thought was to imagine the pushback -- I have one degree of separation from multiple often-otherwise-sensible people who consider vaccination "pointlessly shooting children full of monkey pus" as one of my high school teachers (the bug-eyed math guy) often put it, and I don't think I want to have endless disheartening arguments over the merits of vaccination. Besides, a holiday about how much worse the world could be would be kind of an uphill sale.
Still. In May I'll try to remember Dr. Jenner.
OTOH, my first thought was to imagine the pushback -- I have one degree of separation from multiple often-otherwise-sensible people who consider vaccination "pointlessly shooting children full of monkey pus" as one of my high school teachers (the bug-eyed math guy) often put it, and I don't think I want to have endless disheartening arguments over the merits of vaccination. Besides, a holiday about how much worse the world could be would be kind of an uphill sale.
Still. In May I'll try to remember Dr. Jenner.
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Date: 2011-03-10 01:50 pm (UTC)I am disappointed to note that GIANTmicrobes does not have a stuffed smallpox bacterium.