Cowpox to the mild form of smallpox and the observation that dairy farmers were immune from smallpox inspired the first smallpox vaccine, created and administered by English physician Edward Jenner. The word “vaccination,” coined by Jenner in 1796, is derived from the Latin root "vaccinus", meaning of or from the cow. Once vaccinated, a patient develops antibodies that make them immune to cowpox, but they also develop immunity to the smallpox virus, or "Variola virus". The cowpox vaccinations and later incarnations proved so successful that in 1980, the World Health Organization announced that smallpox was the first disease to be eradicated
1978 smallpox outbreak in the United Kingdom as few laboratories as possible handling the virus. An official government inquiry into Parker's death was conducted by a panel led by microbiologist R.A. Shooter, and comprising Dr Christopher Booth, Prof. Sir David Evans, J.R. McDonald, Dr David Tyrrell and Prof. Sir Robert Williams, with observers from the World Health Organization (WHO), The Health and Safety Executive and the Trades Union Congress. Shooter's report was debated by Parliament. Since Shooter's "Report of the investigation into the cause of the 1978 Birmingham smallpox occurrence" also played an important role in the court case against the university for breach of safety legislation,