Bring back Jenner

The British Medical Journal is backing a campaign by the Edward Jenner Museum to reinstate a statue of Edward Jenner in London’s Trafalgar Square

In science and medicine Edward Jenner - also known as the father of immunology - is widely known for developing a vaccine against smallpox.

In 1858 Prince Albert unveiled a statue dedicated to Jenner in Trafalgar Square. But four years later, following pressure from anti-vaccinationists, it was relegated to Kensington Gardens, where it remains.

A BMJ report of 1862 said: "The pitiful memorial ... to Jenner had been banished even with ignominy from that honourable neighbourhood of men esteemed great because they killed their fellow creatures whereas he only saved them."

At that time, smallpox was a terrifying disease. It attacked one person in three and killed one in 12. Even in the 20th century, smallpox killed 300 million people. Survivors were often left severely scarred or even blind.

In an editorial in this week’s BMJ, Professor Gareth Williams from the University of Bristol explains how Jenner tested and proved his theory that infection with cowpox gave immunity to smallpox, “thus dragging vaccination into mainstream medical practice.”

Professor Williams, the author of a new history of smallpox, describes how “worldwide admiration for Jenner flooded in” but that back in England, Jenner faced “concerted opposition” from anti-vaccinationists.

“Leading doctors, jealous or dismissive of the provincial surgeon, set out to undermine vaccination,” he writes, while churchmen “appalled by people being infected with ‘bestial’ pus, bent Biblical texts to prove that vaccination was the Devil’s invention.”

However, “ultimately, vaccination was the decisive weapon that eradicated smallpox," says Professor Williams.

Now, 30 years after the disease has been eradicated from the world, the professor says it's time that Jenner's statue is reinstated alongside the other Trafalgar Square heroes “for his role in the defeat of an enemy of all mankind… which killed far more people than all human wars combined.”

In defeating smallpox, Jenner also opened the door for immunisation against many other infections, and vaccination has proved to be one of medicine’s most transferable technologies.

Professor Williams is urging people to sign a petition to persuade the government to put Jenner’s statue on the empty fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square, at /petitions.number10.gov.uk/Jenner2010/

This article was published on Fri 26 March 2010