Standing for science
Make Smallpox Great Again is brought to you by Blossom the Cow, LLC, a veteran-owned Arizona small business named after the 18th-century cow whose contribution to vaccination became the most life-saving discovery in human history.
We create message-carrying apparel and accessories that celebrate science-based public health with humor and historical perspective. Our designs flip political messaging on its head with a playful twist.
These products aren't about attacking people — they're about defending principles …with a wink.
Wearing Blossom gear doesn't just show what you stand for. It supports those fighting for public health — others who believe that protecting public health is something we can all rally behind, regardless of political pasture. Because sometimes the most powerful statements come from unexpected sources — like a cow that changed medical history, or you, wearing your values for the world to see.
We take our mission seriously even while having fun. All profits from our site are donated to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, a public-private partnership that helps vaccinate more than half the world’s children against some of the world's deadliest diseases.
BLOSSOM’S STORY
Smallpox killed around 400,000 Europeans every year in the 18th century and wreaked havoc in the “New World.” Our heroine, Blossom, gave the similar but less ominous disease, cowpox, to dairy maid, Sarah Nelmes in 1796. An astute English doctor, Edward Jenner, was aware that dairy maids seemed less prone to smallpox, and he inoculated a young boy with Sarah’s cowpox and showed that the boy was resistant to the far more deadly disease, smallpox. Dr. Jenner called his procedure of giving someone cowpox to protect them from smallpox “vaccination,” after the Latin word for cow.
Despite the Napoleonic wars, Dr. Jenner willingly shared his findings with French physicians, telling them, “The sciences are never at war.” It was the beginning of the science of immunology and the first step in the eradication of a human disease. Dr. Jenner’s smallpox vaccination is estimated to have prevented the deaths of 150 to 200 million people. Prevention, particularly by vaccination, remains our best defense against infectious disease killers today.