The creation of the vaccine is considered by many to be the single most significant advancement of medicine in history. Vaccines have increased the human lifespan, reduced the infant mortality rate, and removed diseases from existence. Without vaccines, life on earth would be much, much, worse.
As important as they are, many people have gained a solid understanding of how they work, at least to some degree. However, reminding ourselves of the specifics can be helpful, especially around flu season. So, in honor of vaccines, here is a brief history and explanation of vaccines!
The First Step
Vaccines didn’t just appear out of nowhere. Like most inventions, vaccines are a result of several steps that were built one upon another, beginning with the first one–inoculations.
Inoculations are Diet Vaccines, somewhat. According to the World Health Organization, “From at least the 15th century, people in different parts of the world have attempted to prevent illness by intentionally exposing healthy people to smallpox– a practice known as variolation (after a name for smallpox, ‘la variole’). Some sources suggest these practices were taking place as early as 200 BCE.”
Now, we don’t know how much the first people to inoculate knew about diseases and their treatments, but it is possible they only inoculated because they saw the results. Inoculation was effective if done right, and, when the practice was brought to Europe in 1721, it was improved upon.
Dr. Edward Jenner
It was in England, in the year 1796, when Dr. Edward Jenner created a vaccine for smallpox when he realized that people infected with cowpox were immune to the disease. He inoculated an eight-year-old with cowpox, and despite an initial negative reaction, the boy recovered well.
He recovered so well, in fact, that months later Dr. Jenner inoculated him again, this time with smallpox, and it worked incredibly well–the boy remained in perfect health, showing no reaction to the disease whatsoever.
Vaccas?
The term “vaccination” was created as a label specifically for Dr. Jenner’s work with cowpox and smallpox, so the term was coined using the Latin word for cow, vacca!
Vaccas-ination became so popular in Europe that during the 1800s, leaders like Napoleon and Thomas Jefferson endorsed the vaccine, encouraging their constituents to receive vaccines wherever they were available.
Progress in the late 1800s was rapid, as people like Louis Pasteur–the French chemist who invented pasteurization, a technique used to kill bacteria in packaged liquids–created vaccines for rabies and typhoid.
By 1894, Dr. Anna Williams isolated strains of diphtheria that became crucial for treating what was then one of the deadliest diseases on Earth, saving countless lives through her efforts.
The Flu Vaccine
In 1918, the world was going through dark times, the United States included. World War I had changed the world, breaking many families apart through the deaths of their loved ones, while earthquakes, fires, and famines on a global scale brought even more trouble to the States.
It was amidst this turmoil that the Spanish Flu struck, killing 1 in 67 American soldiers, 675,000 United States citizens, and over 50 million people worldwide. The government, especially after seeing its military crippled with the disease, made finding a flu vaccine its top priority.
After 2 million failed trial doses in 1918 alone, the Spanish Flu finally dies down, but not because of vaccines. This does prompt research into other vaccines, however, like the yellow fever vaccine developed in 1937, the whooping cough vaccine in 1939, and, finally, an influenza vaccine developed in 1945.
Polio eventually was eradicated from most countries on earth in later years after the development of the polio vaccine in 1960, and the governments of the world encouraged mass vaccination for these diseases.
Now What?
As technology has advanced, treatment for vaccines has become more and more effective, and the time required to develop vaccines has gone down. Vaccination efforts, in normal times, and not during worldwide pandemics, usually revolve around getting vaccines to those in underserved communities where access is generally restricted.
More frequently, vaccination efforts also include talks about the potential side effects of vaccines, especially when it comes to kids. If you have questions, asking medical professionals is a safe route to go. Furthermore, the internet, though information on the topic can be controversial, does have accurate sources that give information on these subjects.
The Mayo Clinic website has great resources, as does the Global Advisory Committee on Vaccines, and the University of San Francisco’s Medical Board. These groups are made up of medical professionals that have dedicated their lives to research, accuracy, and helping the general public.
