The End of Smallpox

Granny Bi Shumin Talks

About Vaccines （Four Copies）

Bi Shumin

Zhejiang Education Publishing House

January 2022

192.00 （CNY）

Vaccinations are an essential experience in everyone’s life， but many children don’t know about vaccines and are even afraid of them. For this reason， Ms. Bi Shumin， a well-known Chinese psychiatrist and attending physician in internal medicine， wrote a set of picture books about vaccines for Chinese children. This set of picture books popularized the relevant knowledge regarding the roles of rabies vaccine， smallpox vaccine， polio vaccine， and COVID-19 vaccine for children.

Through the dialogue between the protagonist Xiaoxue and Granny， the author explains scientific knowledge of vaccines to children across the country from a children’s perspective to help them understand the role of vaccine injections and ease their fear of them. Considering the severity of the current pandemic， it is even more necessary to establish a correct awareness of vaccine immunization.

Bi Shumin

She is an influential female writer in the Chinese-speaking world， a national first-class writer， a psychiatrist， a world traveler， and an attending physician in internal medicine. Wang Meng called her “an angel in white of the literary world”. Bi Shumin’s elegant and peaceful writing that is full of salutary influence and devotion， is deeply loved by readers and her works have won many awards.

In summer， the mother wore her beautiful shirt and skirt.

Xiaoxue saw two round scars on her mother’s upper arm.

One of them was irregular in shape and had a rough texture.

It was about the size of a pea.

She asked her mother， what kind of insect bite is this？

Her mother said it is the mark that the vaccination left.

Xiaoxue looked at her arm， and saw only one round scar.

So she asked her mom， “Why do I only have one mark and you have two？ Was the first shot not enough， so you got another one？”

The mother said no. I got two different shots.

One is the BCG vaccine to prevent tuberculosis.

The other is the cowpox vaccine to prevent smallpox.

Xiaoxue asked， “So which vaccine am I missing？”

To which her mother replied，

“You haven’t got the cowpox vaccine that prevents smallpox.”

Xiaoxue asked， “What is smallpox？ Why haven’t I gotten vaccinated？”

Xiaoxue asked， “So which vaccine did I miss？”

Mom said， “You didn’t get the cowpox vaccine against smallpox.”

Xiaoxue asked， “What is smallpox？

Is it a flower scattered from the sky？ Why didn’t I get vaccinated？”

Mom said that there were already traces of smallpox on a mummy found in Egypt more than 3，000 years ago. Hundreds of years ago， about 500，000 people died each year from smallpox in Europe and 800，000 in Asia. Throughout the 18th century， more than 150 million people died from smallpox in Europe. Unexceptionally， even the paramount king was doomed.”

Xiaoxue wondered， “At this point it was human pox， at that time cowpox. What’s wrong？ Can cows also get infected by the virus？ Is cowpox a pox from cows？”

Jenner was very worried about the safety of the female worker， but she said with confidence， ”I’ve had cowpox and won’t get smallpox again.”