Vaccines through the ages: The vexing history of vaccination
By Christina McConney, Biology, 2021
Vaccines are a loaded topic today — with strong supporters on both sides of the argument, despite overwhelming scientific evidence backing their effectiveness. But before there could be anti-vaccination sentiments, vaccines had to be created.
Early China and India (roughly 1500 BCE) introduced the practice of inoculation, a method for the prevention of smallpox, involving blowing crushed, dried scabs into healthy children’s nostrils. This helped build an immunity to the disease through exposure to an attenuated (live) strain.
In the late 18th century, English physician Edward Jenner invented the smallpox vaccine. Despite this contribution, it was Louis Pasteur who was crowned the principle leader of immunology through his demonstration that infectious microbial diseases could be prevented and treated through immunology.
Since Pasteur’s contributions, vaccines have decreased disease related mortality rates.
Smallpox and rinderpest have even been eradicated globally, while other diseases like polio are on the verge of eradication.
Despite evidence of documented success through vaccination, with reduction of mortality rates in diseases covered by the DTP3 vaccine cited most often, there has been a recent decrease in vaccination rates and a re-emergence of diseases.
The anti-vaccine movement isn’t new; opposition has been around since the 1700s. In the US, anti-vaccine sentiment began to rise with the enforcement of “no shots, no school” in the 1960s, and echoes of resistance could be seen globally. However, it wasn’t until 1998 that British gastroenterologist Andrew Wakefield announced “evidence” linking measles to autism — a milestone in the modern anti-vaccine movement.
Wakefield’s false findings irreversibly impacted vaccination rates globally.
Vaccination rates decreased in both economically advantaged and disadvantaged populations, and “non-philosophical belief” vaccination exemptions have risen since 2009, leaving populations more susceptible to outbreaks. However, not all vaccine exemptions are based on distrust: Medical and religious exemptions exist and are viewed as valid reasons to refuse administration of vaccines. Herd immunity allows exempt individuals to be protected from disease, but it only works when a minimum percentage of the able population is vaccinated.
Vaccines are not new, nor is their opposition. However, their benefits are indisputable: they have increased childhood survival rates worldwide since their introduction.
With a large portion of today’s anti-vaccine supporters refusing to vaccinate children based on a mistrust of doctors and continued reliance upon false information, the health and safety of millions of people are at risk.
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PLoS medicine (2018), DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1002578
Frontiers in Immunology (2012), DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2012.00068
