# Smallpox vaccination scar - admittedly superficial question **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 9, 2001, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smallpox-vaccination-scar-admittedly-superficial-question/92477 "2001-11-09T17:43:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![D18](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@D18](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D18)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2001, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smallpox-vaccination-scar-admittedly-superficial-question/92477/1 "2001-11-09T17:43:06Z")
Why did our smallpox vaccinations leave that unique scar whereas our other vaccinations didn’t? ---
**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2001, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smallpox-vaccination-scar-admittedly-superficial-question/92477/2 "2001-11-09T17:50:24Z")
Many vaccines work by giving you exposure to a killed or weakeded form of the pathogen to stimulate antibodies. In some cases you are actually getting a small dose of the disease or a related on. Smallpox vaccine came about because it was noticed that milkmaids who had been exposed to the less serious cowpox were immune from smallpox. The scar is the remant of a smallpox/cowpox pustule. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2001, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smallpox-vaccination-scar-admittedly-superficial-question/92477/3 "2001-11-09T19:44:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Padeye \* > > \*\* The scar is the remant of a smallpox/cowpox pustule. > > \*\* Wrong! The scar is a result of the bifurcated needle used for the vaccine. [Here](http://jama.ama-assn.org/issues/v281n22/fig_tab/jst90000_f3.html) is a picture of the needle. And [this site](http://choo.fis.utoronto.ca/fis/courses/lis2102/KO.WHO.case.html) talks about the invention of the needle, among other things: > [@](#): > > The third major technological innovation was the bifurcated needle. The new freeze-dried vaccine required a different method of presenting single doses of the vaccine. Because the vaccine had to be reconstituted each time and dispensed in tiny quantities, the traditional method of storing liquid vaccine in capillaries was no longer tenable. In developing a new solution, Benjamin Rubin of Wyeth Laboratories worked with Gus Chakros of the then Reading Textile Machine Company in needle design. It occurred to Rubin that a prolonged needle with a loop would provide both the capillarity activity and the scarification action required (Hopkins 1989). He suggested the use of a sewing needle in which the loop end was ground into a prolonged fork, creating two bifurcated prongs. A piece of wire suspended between the prongs was designed to hold a constant amount of vaccine by capillarity. By 1968, the bifurcated needle had replaced traditional methods in most countries, and by 1970 it was in use everywhere. ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2001, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smallpox-vaccination-scar-admittedly-superficial-question/92477/4 "2001-11-09T22:28:24Z")
**adam yax** , I think you’re wrong. I heard on the news that they were testing diluting the freeze-dried vacine, and looking to see if the scar devloped as evidence that the vacination “took”. And we all know the TV news is never wrong. :rolleyes: However, from [your site](http://choo.fis.utoronto.ca/fis/courses/lis2102/KO.WHO.case.html): > [@](#): > > Unambiguous standards of performance were stipulated from the outset and refined as the program advanced. Mass vaccination campaigns were expected to result in more than 80% of the population in each area having a vaccination scar. Independent assessment teams could easily ascertain the proportion of the population with such a scar. This only makes sense if the scar is evidence of a successful vaccination, not if the scar is caused by the needle. I believe **Padeye** ’s answer is correct. ---
**Author:** ![D18](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@D18](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D18)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2001, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smallpox-vaccination-scar-admittedly-superficial-question/92477/5 "2001-11-09T22:32:13Z")
From **adam’s** site: > [@](#): > > The requisite amount of reconstituted vaccine is held between the prongs of the needle and vaccination is done by multiple punctures; **15 strokes** , at right angles to the skin over the deltoid muscle, are rapidly made within an area of about **5 mm** in diameter. Calling Qadgop! ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2001, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smallpox-vaccination-scar-admittedly-superficial-question/92477/6 "2001-11-10T01:07:17Z")
Well, I went to the bathroom mirror for another look at my smallpox vaccination scar (whoever did me way back when put it towards the back of my left arm, so it’s hard for me to see directly) That sucker is _round_, it’s a distinct circle. I can see where multiple stabs from a “bifurcated needle” could leave a grouping of small pits and scars, but not this neat of a circle. I mean, it would require some sort of template. Every other smallpox vaccine scar I recall seeing is also just as round, although how distinctly the scar stands out against the skin varies from person to person. Mine was never particularly distinctive, and after 35 years it’s faded quite a bit. I think it comes from the cowpox pustule you get from the vaccine, not from the needle. ---
**Author:** ![dqa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dqa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dqa)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2001, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smallpox-vaccination-scar-admittedly-superficial-question/92477/7 "2001-11-10T02:08:48Z")
This subject has been discussed several times in the past. Multiple needle injections in a circular pattern seems to be the consensus. [I want a smallpox vaccine](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=90216) [Polio and TB vaccinations](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=92334) [Vaccination scar](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=51374) [Booster shots and freckles](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=37148)