Questão 12 - UCS Verão 2023

Instrução: A questão referem-se ao texto abaixo.

 

Britain’s miraculous, life-saving Garden shed

by Simon Heptinstall

 

    An elegant period home hidden among trees next to the church in a quiet English village houses
a little-known medical museum. More than 200 years ago, this whitewashed Queen Anne building was
the home of a humble country doctor called Edward Jenner. This is where the science of vaccination
began. You can step into the garden shed where Edward Jenner gave the world's first vaccination to his
[5] gardener's eight-year-old son in 1796.
    Visitors will be able to see the candle-lit study behind the staircase where Jenner's scientific notes
and drawings scratched out with an ivory dip pen sit on his round baize-covered desk. This is where he
created the word “vaccine”. On the wall is a contemporary oil painting of Blossom the cow. She was so
central to his experiments that Jenner used vacca, the Latin for “cow”, to describe what he had discovered:
[10] vaccination. Blossom, a large brown Gloucester dairy cow, was the source of the original infection of
cowpox used to create the world’s first vaccines.
    The story is heroic in its simplicity. Village legend tells that Jenner was very concerned with local
smallpox outbreaks. It was one of the most dangerous viruses humans had faced, with a death rate of
around 30% and terrible permanent disfigurement of survivors. The churchyard alongside his garden
[15] houses graves of many contemporary victims.
    It is said that a milkmaid told Jenner she wasn't worried about catching smallpox – because she'd
already caught the much milder “cowpox” from her cows. Local milkmaids knew that once you had cowpox
you never got smallpox.
    At the time, the medical profession was wrestling with emerging theories of inoculation. This simply
[20] involved injecting a dose of an actual disease, like a modern chickenpox party – where parents bring their
toddlers together to deliberately pass the infection at an early age and confer immunity against later cases,
which can have much more serious consequences. The early inoculators simply gave the full disease to
patients when they were young and strong. They hopefully survived… and then would be immune.
    Jenner was inspired by the milkmaid's comments to devise a much better solution: a harmless but
[25] effective injection to confer immunity. He hypothesised that if he gave mild cowpox to people, it would
stimulate some sort of internal safety system to protect people against smallpox. In an era of blood-letting
leeches and purgatives of mercury, this was a revolutionary concept. No-one then knew about immune
systems. In many ways, Jenner was centuries ahead of his time.
    It is not known whether his first subject, James Phipps – the gardener's eight-year-old son – volunteered
[30] or even knew what he was in for, but Jenner didn't take his contribution lightly.
    The boy survived the process, was thereafter immune to the deadly disease circulating in the area and
proved a theory that has gone on to save millions. Jenner demonstrated the world's gratitude to James by
giving him a house. Visitors can walk down a leafy path from Jenner's home to see Phipps Cottage, now
a private home marked by a plaque in Church Lane.
[35]    In the corner of his own garden, Jenner playfully named the shed where he'd given James' injection
“The Temple of Vaccinia” and characterised himself as the “faithful priest of vaccination”. Somewhat
amazingly, this quirky structure of stone, bark and thatch survives. Perhaps it should become a shrine to
the millions that immunisation has saved from many diseases since, including smallpox (now completely
eradicated thanks to vaccines), and polio.
[40]    When word of Jenner's miraculous cure for smallpox spread, queues of poor farmworkers stretched
from the shed right into the churchyard. Jenner gave life-saving jabs for free, declaring it would be “immoral”
to profit from them.
    Spotting his flute, poetry books and drawings of cuckoos, visitors can't escape the impression that
Jenner, the eighth son of Berkeley's vicar, was an inquisitive, well-meaning and downright eccentric
[45] Georgian man. For example, he met his future wife when he accidentally crash-landed his hot air balloon
in her garden. He also secretly took a cutting from a grapevine belonging to Capability Brown, a famous
18th-Century English gardener and landscape architect, at Hampton Court to plant in his greenhouse,
which is now completely filled by the flourishing vine.
   Somewhat predictably, Jenner was ridiculed by wealthy London medical “experts” who couldn't believe
[50] a rural doctor had made such a major medical breakthrough. Contemporary satirical cartoons showed
injected people turning into cows. The world's first anti-vaxxers protested against the new science.
    It took a while for the establishment to realise the significance of his work. Parliament eventually
erected Jenner's statue in Trafalgar Square in 1858 – but after anti-vaxxing protests, it was moved to the
more secluded Kensington Gardens four years later.
[55]    Once the world started realising how important Jenner's invention was, the praise began to roll in.

Although he never seemed to have profited from the vaccine, perhaps he valued some of the comments
more than any riches. Then US president Thomas Jefferson wrote directly to Jenner from America in 1806
saying that “mankind can never forget that you have lived”, and the museum dedicated to his life and work
is the place that ensures that never happens.

Disponível em: https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20220213-britains-miraculous-life-saving-garden-shed. Acesso em: 11 ago. 2022. (Parcial e adaptado.)

Conforme o texto, é correto afirmar que Edward Jenner