Which statement best summarizes the passage?

Earlier knowledge and Jenner’s unethical experiment advanced smallpox vaccination; eradication required collective work. (The passage joins earlier variolation, Jenner’s contribution and ethical failure, and the later international eradication campaign.)

What practice existed before Jenner’s vaccination experiment?

Variolation in parts of Asia and Africa (The opening paragraph describes forms of variolation practiced before vaccination.)

Why does the passage discuss informed consent?

To evaluate the experiment’s method as well as its later importance (The passage says ethical criticism belongs in an accurate account even when the later medical contribution mattered.)

In the final paragraph, “eradicated” means

eliminated worldwide (The declaration followed coordinated work across many countries, so “eradicated” means eliminated worldwide.)

Before and After Jenner’s Vaccine: Level 5 Reading Comprehension Questions

Long before vaccination, communities in parts of Asia and Africa practiced forms of variolation: introducing material from a person with smallpox in hopes of causing a milder infection and later protection. The method carried serious risks, but knowledge of it traveled to other regions. Edward Jenner’s work therefore began within a longer, international history of preventing smallpox.

In England, Jenner also learned from rural observations that people who had caught cowpox seemed protected from smallpox. In 1796, he used material linked to cowpox from Sarah Nelmes in an experiment on James Phipps, his gardener’s eight-year-old son. Jenner later deliberately exposed Phipps to smallpox, and the boy did not develop the disease.

That experiment helped demonstrate a path toward vaccination, but it also presents an ethical wrong. An eight-year-old could not provide modern informed consent, and exposing a child to such danger would violate current research protections. Naming that problem is part of telling the history accurately, not a denial that vaccination became valuable.

Jenner did not end smallpox alone. Researchers, vaccine producers, governments, the World Health Organization, and local health workers built later campaigns. Vaccination was combined with case finding, surveillance, and rapid containment across many countries. In 1980, the World Health Assembly declared smallpox eradicated. The achievement joined earlier knowledge, scientific testing, public-health organization, and sustained work by many people.

Comprehension questions