Vaccines – what are they?

According to the World Health Organization: “In 1721, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu brought smallpox inoculation to Europe, by asking that her two daughters be inoculated against smallpox as she had observed practice in Turkey.” and then later on in 1774, farmer Benjamin Jesty made a breakthrough – testing his hypothesis that infection with cowpox could protect a person from smallpox.

Then, in May 1769, English physician Edward Jenner decided to expand on this discovery, collecting substance from a cowpox sore on a milkmaid’s hand and injecting it into 8 year old James Phipps. The boy felt unwell for a few days, giving common reactions and later on recovering in the span of a few days since cowpox isn’t fatal to humans. Around 2 months later, in July of 1769, Jenner decided to test out the hypothesis and injected James once again–but this time he used the substance from a smallpox sore. Just as he’d suspected, James was completely resistant to the disease and, as it turns out, the first person to be vaccinated against smallpox.

Vaccine development didn’t stop at just smallpox, however. In 1872 Louis Pasteur (famously known for inventing pasteurization) created the first lab-made vaccine: a vaccine for fowl cholera in chickens. He later on began trials on prevention of the spread of rabies by using the technique of post-exposure vaccination which were proven successful by his patient Joseph Meister who’d outlived the man himself.

According to the World Health Organization, “From 1918 to 1919, the Spanish Flu pandemic killed an estimated 20–50 million people worldwide, including 1 in 67 United States soldiers, making an influenza vaccine a US military priority.” Later, 1937 Max Theiler, Hugh Smith and Eugen Haagen developed the 17D vaccine against yellow fever, even earning Theiler a Nobel Prize. 

Further down the timeline, in 1945, the first  influenza vaccine was approved for military use, followed in 1946 by an approval for civilian use. The research is led by doctors Thomas Francis Jr and Jonas Salk, who later on (in 1955) developed the first polio vaccine. In 1960, a second type of polio vaccine, developed by Albert Sabin, was approved for use. Sabin’s vaccine was live-attenuated (using the virus in weakened form) and could be given orally, as drops or on a sugar cube.

Then, in 1967 the World Health Organization announced the Intensified Smallpox Eradication Programme, which aims to eradicate smallpox in more than 30 countries through surveillance and vaccination, which was met with global solidarity. In 1969, four years after Dr Baruch Blumberg discovered the hepatitis B virus, he worked with microbiologist Irving Millman to develop the first hepatitis B vaccine, using a heat-treated form of the virus. In 1971, a miracle happened: the measles vaccine (1963) was combined with recently developed vaccines against mumps (1967) and rubella (1969) into a single vaccination (MMR) by Dr Maurice Hilleman, making it much easier for masses around the world to vaccinate efficiently.

In 1978 a polysaccharide vaccine that protects against 14 different strains of pneumococcal pneumonia was licensed, and in 1983 it was expanded to protect against 23 strains. In 1985 the first vaccine against diseases caused by Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) was licensed, after David H Smith founded a company to produce it–a project Smith and Porter W Anderson Jr have been working on since 1969. In 1988 following the eradication of smallpox, WHO set its sights on poliomyelitis, launching a Global Polio Eradication Initiative. In the late 1980s, polio was endemic in 125 countries, and the initiative aims to achieve its eradication by the year 2000.

In 2006 the first vaccine for Human Papillomavirus (HPV) was approved. HPV vaccination goes on to become a key part of the effort to eliminate cervical cancer.

In 2016 the success of the Meningitis Vaccine Project highlights the key role public–private partnerships can play in helping to develop vaccines. In 2019, the malaria vaccine pilot implementation is launched in Ghana, Malawi and Kenya. Effective COVID-19 vaccines are developed, produced and distributed with unprecedented speed, some using new mRNA technology. 

In December 2020, just 1 year after the first case of COVID-19 was detected, the first COVID-19 vaccine doses were administered.

A list of myths that are refuted by science backed facts regarding vaccines:

Myth: Vaccines tend to contain harmful ingredients

Fact: Vaccines contain small doses of safe ingredients since even large doses of water are fatal. A few examples of what may be considered “harmful” are Formaldehyde which is present in some vaccines as an inactivating agent but in minimal doses or Aluminium which is actually present in doses that are less than what an average person might ingest from their food or water on the daily.

Myth: Vaccines cause autism and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

Fact: While scientists haven’t yet found the cause of autism and SIDS, vaccines are by far the unlikeliest reasoning behind them. Vaccines are extremely safe and any or all side effects caused by them are short term and harmless be it a sore arm from getting a vaccine injected or a temporary fever for a couple of days while the body adapts to it.

Myth: Vaccine-preventable diseases are just part of childhood. It is better to have the disease than become immune through vaccines.

Fact: Vaccine-preventable diseases have many serious complications that can be avoided through immunization. For example, more than 226,000 people are hospitalized from influenza complications including 20,000 children. About 36,000 people die from influenza each year. Vaccines stimulate the immune system to produce an immune response similar to natural infection, but they do not cause the disease or put the immunized person at risk of its potential complications.

Myth: You can get COVID-19 from the vaccine.

Fact: We know that no vaccine is 100% effective. While all of the currently approved COVID-19 vaccines have shown effectiveness at preventing the disease, full effect and protection will take time after the vaccine is given. During this time, the body develops proteins called antibodies, which provide immunity against future infection. Exposure to the SARS-CoV-2 virus which causes COVID-19 disease prior to vaccination or during the time where full immunity has not been reached, may mean that you develop the disease and may experience symptoms of COVID-19. All of the current COVID-19 vaccines approved for use in the United States do not contain the live virus, which means you cannot contract COVID-19 from these vaccines.

https://www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/vaccines-and-immunization-what-is-vaccination

https://www.hhs.gov/immunization/basics/types/index.html

https://www.who.int/news-room/spotlight/history-of-vaccination/a-brief-history-of-vaccination

https://www.aaaai.org/tools-for-the-public/conditions-library/allergies/vaccine-myth-fact

https://www.aaaai.org/tools-for-the-public/conditions-library/allergies/vaccine-myth-fact

https://www.nhs.uk/vaccinations/why-vaccination-is-important-and-the-safest-way-to-protect-yourself/