Sending COVID-19 Vaccines Around the World (Advanced Program)
Spotlight English: Advanced
00:00
The History of Cowpox
In the 1800s, doctors took fluid from the cowpox on one person. Then they injected the fluid into another person. Soon, whole villages of people in Europe were safe from smallpox. But across the ocean, many people were still dying fromsmallpox. Doctors wanted to bring the cowpox virus to these places. So Spanish doctors took 22 young boys on a long trip to Central America. These boys were orphans who had no parents. They were between three and ten years old. Because of these boys, as many as 12,000 people were protected from smallpox in just two months in this area. From there, the vaccine could spread into the wider Americas.
Transcript
Play full episode
