[alexvoda]

All of what you said goes against common knowledge of the history of the vaccine. You will have to provide solid sources for your claims in order to not appear as a conspiracy theory peddler.

What you mentioned in the first paragraph is not vaccination, it is called variolation. It predates vaccination by a large margin and was far more dangerous.

[jes5199]

wikipedia: “From 1796 to the 1880s, the vaccine was transmitted from one person to another through arm-to-arm vaccination.”

(Variolation used real smallpox, arm-to-arm used the vaccine virus instead) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smallpox_vaccine#Types

“As medical researchers subjected viruses to serial passage, inadequate recordkeeping resulted in the creation of laboratory strains with unclear origins.[95]: 4 By the late 19th century, it was unknown whether the vaccine originated from cowpox, horsepox, or an attenuated strain of smallpox.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smallpox_vaccine#Origin

[ClumsyPilot]

> a conspiracy theory peddler.

What conspiracy? It’s a theory of lost knowledge / confusion, but no one is conspiring with anyone.

[boxed]

He asked for a citation. Please provide one.

[moomin]

Okay, I just jumped down a rabbit hole trying to figure out what OP might mean. I think they’ve got it sideways. I think they’re talking about vaccinia, a virus related to cowpox (and smallpox) that form the basis of modern smallpox vaccines. The origin of the virus is, entertainingly, lost to time due to poor record keeping.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccinia

There’s also “kinepox”, but I _think_ that’s just a different method of cowpox vaccine delivery.

[jes5199]

I’m not sure what’s sideways, how is this different from what I said?

[moomin]

Actually, you’re right. With the links it’s clear.

[jes5199]

I commented with links to wikipedia’s relevant sections

[Thorrez]

If scientists found out that it wasn't cowpox and then conspired to keep that fact secret, or conspired to say "we all knew it wasn't cowpox from the beginning", that would be a conspiracy.