Boston physician Benjamin Waterhouse (1754- 1846) chronicled the cowpox-based smallpox vaccine and promoted its early use in the United States. The Jenner vaccine marked a big improvement over variolation, the high-risk use of material recovered from smallpox patients, to protect against that disease. Waterhouse drew on information from European physicians and also inoculated members of his household to encourage others to use the Jenner vaccine. Safety, shelf-life, and concerns about the vaccine introducing cowpox into dairy herds were among the challenges in fostering early use of the smallpox vaccine.
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