The Importance of Inoculation and Vaccination in the Fighting of Smallpox

Inoculation had been around for hundreds of years in certain cultures and regions, such as among groups in Western Africa and in Turkey. But Western medicine had ignored the practice, chalking it up to old wives' tales and uneducated nonsense. This is a nice little segue into talking about inoculation and vaccination and the relevance to the fight against smallpox.