The Mexican biologist told the story of the first vaccinated child, within the framework of the FIL Guadalajara 2023.
It is the responsibility of the rulers to protect the health of all those who live under the jurisdiction of the State: Antonio Lascano.
During the third day of activities of El Colegio Nacional at FIL Guadalajara 2023, the biologist and collegiate Antonio Lazcano offered a historical review of vaccines, with emphasis on the case of the first inoculated child. He was a Russian orphan who was renamed by Maria Fyodorovna, Russian empress, as Vacunov, the son of the vaccine.
In the preamble to his conference, Lazcano highlighted the importance of book fairs in the development of societies: “A book fair is a song to freedom, a song to culture, a song to the rights of young people, of adults and the elderly, to cultivate. When one cultivates himself, he develops critical thinking and knows how to see himself and others, which contributes to the development of a more egalitarian, democratic and just society.
In her conference, Lazcano highlighted the role of the women of the Enlightenment, who played a fundamental role in the eradication of smallpox, since, she considered, it is important to recognize the commitment of a series of women, “convinced of the secular part of nature and their responsibility as rulers. “They had a vision of the State that allowed immunization to spread as a public health rule throughout the world.”
Lazcano began the history of vaccines by talking about the infections that occurred in America after the arrival of the Spanish to Mesoamerica. In the biologist’s opinion, Hernán Cortés’s best ally was not the Tlaxcalans, but smallpox, which decimated a good part of the indigenous population during the conquest process.
Later, Lazcano narrated the role of Lady Mary Montagu, wife of the English ambassador in Istanbul. In one of the letters he sent to England, he said that in the then Ottoman country, smallpox was a harmless infection thanks to inoculation: “Montagu said that every autumn, a group of women from Asia Minor went knocking on the doors of the palaces. , businesses and houses, carrying a walnut shell, which contained the dust of the scars of people who had suffered smallpox. They asked: ‘Do you want to inoculate your children to protect them from smallpox?’” In addition, women organized parties where they “vaccinated” the children. One of these children was the son of Montagu.
Subsequently, Montagu told the vaccination process to her friend, the Princess of Wales, who decided to inoculate her children as a state decision. With this, the monarch guaranteed that her descendants to the throne would not die of smallpox. From that moment on, European society began a vaccination process, mainly among royalty. Even the ladies of the court wore embroidered details on their dresses that represented smallpox scars, which was a campaign to promote vaccination.
The practice reached the Russian Empire, with Catherine the Great, inoculated by an English doctor, “she felt bad for a couple of days, she returned to court and had some pustules already dried, she ground them up, inoculated her son and they distributed the dry powder among 140 members of the nobility, although he transformed his inoculation into an act of messianic proportions.”
Until then, vaccination was only exclusive to the nobility. It was not until the research of Edward Jenner that a formal vaccine and inoculation campaign could be developed, and the news of its success reached the Russian Empire, precisely, to the ears of Empress Maria Fyodorovna. The first vaccinated were the orphans from an orphanage in Moscow and, as he had no name, the first child to be vaccinated was named Vacunov.
“A large entourage left the Kremlin—with all the splendor and refinement of the Enlightenment—to tour the streets of Moscow and arrived at an orphanage founded by Catherine the Great. The nuns had already chosen one of the orphans and vaccinated him,” the referee recalled. This anonymous child was named Vacunov by the Empress.
“We have no record of Vacunov or his descendants, but it is known that the empress gave him a country house. He did not have protection from the State and did not receive any noble title, but the child was protected,” Lazcano recalled.
Fyodorovna recognized Jenner’s scientific work with a series of letters, recognitions and some land on which the scientist created a center to continue studying vaccines: “Jenner’s vision was similar to that of [los colegiados] Ignacio Chávez, when he founded the Institute of Cardiology, or Dr. Zubirán at the National Institute of Nutrition; people with a vision of the State.”
Vaccination in New Spain
King Charles IV of Spain, at the initiative of the doctor Francisco Javier Balmis, organized a vaccination campaign in all the territories of Spain, including the Viceroyalty of New Spain and the Philippines. That mission was called The Royal Philanthropic Vaccine Expedition. It was made up of 12 children, carriers of the vaccine, who were cared for by a single mother named María Isabel Cendela y Gómez. “Cendela y Gómez took care of these children with great devotion, for this reason she is known as the first Mexican nurse. We Mexicans hate Doña Isabel because a medal with this name is given to the most outstanding nurse.”
Before concluding his participation, Lazcano commented that during this period he found “the vision of the State to be astonishing,” because from that moment on, vaccination ceased to be an act of charity of a religious order, but rather the rulers assumed responsibility. to protect the health of all those who live under the jurisdiction of the State.
The lecture Vacunov, the little orphan, given by Antonio Lazcano at the FIL Guadalajara 2023, is available on the institution’s YouTube Channel: elcolegionacionalmx.
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2023-11-30 21:20:59
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