The Untold Story of the First Vaccine

Vaccines save millions of lives each year, so we owe a lot to the people that pioneered that medical breakthrough. But the concept of a vaccine had already existed for a long time before it was “discovered,” and the real story is way more interesting!

Hosted by: Michael Aranda

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Thumbnail Credit: Wellcome Collection

[neilburnside]

My man Onesimus out here saving folk for no good reason. Give it up for Onesimus.

[besmart]

So glad you told the Onesimus story! Interestingly, his given name comes from a slave in the Bible who escaped, was converted by Paul, and sent back to his former master sort of "immunized" from enslavement thanks to his salvation. Interesting symbolism

[zachheilman]

The idea of all kinds of science being incremental improvements, rather than single brilliant inventors, is explored wonderfully in James Burke's Connections TV series for the BBC. Highly recommend it!

[bamzerdaniel]

Hmm just a few weeks ago I told my dad about Jenner and the milkmaid story, I’m gonna tell him the real story now

[darrellcole]

Wish I had Scishow back in the 50's when I was in school. It would've made science more interesting than it was. Always been a fan of science, all disciplines

[pachice]

I got the COVID vaccine :)
Edit: Pfizer vaccine. I’m fine, all good. I’m from Canada and visit my mother in long-term care, which is why I got it so quick. Sore for a couple days at injection site, no other side effects. They monitor you after the shot (15m) to make sure you don’t have an allergic reaction. Everyone was fine that I saw. Actually, I got hives that night, but they were gone after an hour or two and it may have been unrelated, anyway, as I have MANY allergies. Hives are not uncommon for me.

[charlotte-mgwj]

so basically, history credits the one who shouts"first!" in the comments section.

[Joghurt]

Watching this before my last round of adult immunization shots because my parents were antivaxx when I was a baby! Yay medicine!

[jackjenner]

I can't believe my great grandaddy was a poser

[mr.fluffyface]

Cotton Mather: Is a science nerd
Also Cotton Mather: Believes in witchcraft.

[Sciencerely]

As a human biologist it always amazed me how great our immune system is. Besides helping us to become immune against pathogens, immune cells (mainly NK and T cells) also actively hunt down mutated cells which could otherwise become cancer cells. In fact, without this mechanism cancer would form much more frequently (I made a video about this topic). The immune system is just awesome!

[riverbender]

All of your presenters are great personalities with fine diction. Thank You SciShow.

[maxxflame]

I really like how this video attacks the ideas that traditional science and history reporting gets wrong

[hungrymusicwolf]

And so you see: you can learn something from anyone, and sometimes that someone is an ancient tribe.

[eliscanfield]

One of the parts I find most difficult in talking about history to kids is that there is _always_ more to the story. Lots and lots more. I read my children books, some of which are little kid versions of history, and the struggle to explain more versus the time we have is even worse than when I student taught social studies to big kids, and I would add asides there, too, when I knew something about it.

[Justyoshi]

So glad this was shared on scishow! It always bothered me only seeing the classic Jenner story in most of the textbooks Ive read. It makes for a nice, short and memorable story but just felt like students were getting short changed.

[elliephants]

The history of variolation in its infancy was really cool to hear! Really, really super genuinely disgusting, but interesting as hell! It's nice to know how things actually came about.

[lizard]

I'm so happy that they said "enslaved people" instead of "slaves". It's a good reminder that they were all individuals and that there's more to their identities than their enslavement.

[TedBenic]

I love how history can now be reanalyzed with the advent of the internet and mass communication. I always wonder if somewhere there is a project rewriting history less linear and one dimensional and more like a tree of life. I'd definitely get lost in it! It's so vital to understand the full story if you're going to fully understand anything! Great Video!

[MeesterG]

James Burke made a series called 'Connections' in 1978. It's available on YouTube and definitely a recommendation to watch and learn how inventions are all connected. And not 1 scientist made the big invention alone.