Vaccination against smallpox is almost 200 years old, yet it is still far from being an invariably safe procedure. Although production methods have become more sanitary, the vaccine itself has changed little since Edward Jenner scraped it from sores on the hand of a cowpox-infected dairymaid. It causes severe and even fatal reactions in a small but appreciable number of people, with an average of seven deaths reported annually in the U.S. since 1950. Also, it probably leaves a greater number of victims with permanent mental damage from spread of the cowpox virus...
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