Essentially the only difference between the two, at the time Jenner introduced the latter, was that the former used real smallpox virus and the latter used its cousin Cow-Pox virus. It was not the same as chicken pox parties! While you were using your feeling regarding Patrick Henry I was researching the facts on him. Prior to Washington ordering the entire army variolated they’d tried a variety of tactics more akin to chicken pox parties. They hadn’t succeeded and smallpox threatened to cost us the war. It had already cost us Quebec. Variolation caught on earlier in the north, notably pushed by Cotton Mather who’d learned it from his slave. Time had convinced convinced many there it was the better strategy. The south had less experience and likely was partially against it just because the north was for. Virginia had outlawed it. Washington, fighting in the north, became convinced variolation for the entire army was the best strategy. His own state’s law currently blocked that. So Geo. wrote his governor and friend and convinced Henry to change the law and let Geo. do exactly what you doubt!
Common sense back in that day was that smallpox WOULD kill 10-20% of people and that a tactic that offered 10-20 times less risk in greatly reducing its spread was GOOD for all. They knew smallpox was contagious and was thus NOT a purely individual matter. Your ‘right’ to be an idiot doesn’t go as far as getting me or my kid killed as a consequence.
We don’t have to guess how Henry would have chosen, we can learn from how he historically chose. And stop falsely tarring the reputation of a great man with modern nonsense. Yes Henry was a stubborn, ornery advocate of freedom, even to becoming a leading anti-federalist, but he was more than that. He was practical enough be be elected governor more than once. I honor the great men in our past. My college roommate was Cotton Mather’s multigreat nephew. My third cousin was surgeon general of Washington’s army during the time in question. They made choices from which we all still benefit, from the best information available to them.