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Description:

No disease in history has destroyed more lives than the "speckled monster," smallpox. Traditionally, the only way to prevent smallpox was inoculation, a medieval Indian and Chinese practice imported to Europe in the early 1700s. Doctors originally collected pus or scabs from someone with a mild case, then scratched the patient's upper arm and introduced diseased matter. With luck, the patient got a mild case as well—some aches, a few pustules—and therefore became immune. All too often, though, inoculation backfired, and a full-fledged case of smallpox flared up. For this reason, most people agonized over whether to inoculate their families.

According to the passage, the goal of inoculation was to

(A)remove the infection from a patient's wounds
(B)infect patients so they would gain immunity
(C)cure patients already infected with smallpox
(D)quarantine infected persons to prevent contamination


Transcript

00:02

Okay reading shmoop er's Here we go another paragraph Another

00:05

day another dollar more or less that's What they pay

00:07

us around here according to passage the goal of inoculation

00:11

wass to what No disease in history is disorder more

00:17

lives and the speckled months or smallpox Traditionally the only

00:20

way to prevent small cycle is inoculation on medieval indian

00:23

and chinese practice imported to europe in the early seventeen

00:25

hundred Dr originally collected puss or scabs from some of

00:28

the mild case Then scratch patients upper arm and introduced

00:31

the disease matter well With luck patient got a mild

00:33

cases Well some eggs for you plus jewels and therefore

00:36

became immune All too often the inoculation backfired in a

00:38

full fledged case of smallpox flared up For this reason

00:41

most people agonized over whether to inoculate their families Okay

00:44

well let's think about this How weird is science Believe

00:47

it or not the only way to make sure that

00:50

you don't get this disease is tio What is it

00:52

Oh yeah Give you the disease Well text makes it

00:55

clear that inoculation was a primitive form of modern vaccinations

00:59

Minus the lollypop reward You get there for being brave

01:03

and not crying I usually get that usually Okay Well

01:06

the answer here has got to be infect patients so

01:09

that they would gain immunity Right That's the goal here

01:13

The loser bowl Is pretty clear Removing the infection from

01:16

one person was well part of the process but it

01:18

wasn't the goal and inoculation was only used on healthy

01:22

people which is why it was such a gamble Quarantine

01:25

was a tactic used in treating smallpox but that's different

01:28

from inoculation Totally different A quarantine be kind of lonely 00:01:33.016 --> [endTime] all right that's it we're done

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