Wednesday, November 18, 2020
The news of a Covid vaccine has everyone excited but we hope, not so excited that we take off our protective face coverings. In the late eighteenth century, Edward Jenner developed the method called vaccination, a real improvement over the older method of variolation, which inoculated persons with the actual smallpox virus.
Jenner realized that there was a reason milkmaids did not contract smallpox; they had contracted cowpox, a milder form that made them immune to the dreaded disease. So he took a cowpox lesion and created vaccination, so named because of the Latin word for cow, vacca. He ran into persons who, much like today, opposed the method even though it substantially reduced the number of deaths as a result of smallpox.
Consider those who oppose vaccination today. They are no different than the Taliban who kill health workers trying to eliminate smallpox, polio, and other childhood diseases. It’s really bad news when people otherwise normally rational begin believing conspiracy theories on vaccination.
Prayer for the Day
We pray that you renew our spirits, O Lord,
Enabling us to discover you in surprising places;
We pray that you revive our hearts, O Lord,
Breaking the seal we create around our souls.
Center our lives in you, O God, for you are the center of all,
A light of life in a world dark with death
In the name of him who shows us how to live,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
Leadership is about vision and responsibility, not power.
Seth Berkley, MD, CEO of GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance
Misinformation or distrust of vaccines can be like a contagion that can spread as fast as measles.
Theresa Tam, MD, Canadian physician, epidemiologist
Happy are those who consider the poor;
the Lord delivers them in the day of trouble.
The Lord protects them and keeps them alive;
they are called happy in the land.
You do not give them up to the will of their enemies.
The Lord sustains them on their sickbed;
in their illness you heal all their infirmities.
Psalm 41:1–3