Inoculation with a weak form of disease-causing matter to prevent serious illness is a charming idea that has exerted a powerful hold on the human mind since its first primitive iteration against smallpox, called variolation, was proposed in England and the British American colonies in the early 18th century.

After Edward Jenner published his 1798 pamphlet in which he proposed using cowpox to inoculate humans against smallpox, the idea of inoculation became the central concept of infectious disease medicine and has remained so ever since. A serious student of the history of vaccination will observe that this public health technology has always been more a matter of wishful thinking, faith, and commercial enterprise than unbiased scientific inquiry.