Why Vaccines are Important and Necessary
Why Vaccines are Important and Necessary
The History of Vaccines in America: A Legacy of Protection
Issue #750 The Choice, Friday, October 18, 2024
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Photo Credit: The National Foundation for Infectious Diseases
In our family, getting and staying up to date on our vaccinations was never questioned and never an issue. My father, an identical twin, was born in 1920, the 12th of 13 children. This was just at the end of the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic, and many other diseases were prevalent then. A brother just before him was stillborn. His twin died when they were four years old because the only hospital in Fort Smith, Arkansas, would not admit him after he accidentally stepped on a nail while playing outside. The young Black child died of untreated gangrene.
In the mid-1930s, when my father was a teenager, two of his older sisters died of TB. One sister caught it and gave it to the other, who had a 3-year-old daughter. That experience inspired my father and his older brother to go into medicine. My uncle became a doctor, but my father could not because there were limited openings in medical schools for Black people until the second half of the 20th century.
So, my father became a medical technologist, working in a hospital lab, researching and developing vaccines and other medicines his entire career. The hospital in Detroit where he worked, Herman Kiefer, was, not coincidentally, originally a TB sanatorium.
The mandatory use of vaccines and the wearing of masks did not become a real issue until the Trump administration when TFG (The Former Guy) railed against them during COVID-19. Mask-wearing was also mandatory during the Spanish Flu pandemic, specifically because it was known that wearing masks reduced the incidence of the spreading of the disease.
Most of you remember that you had to be up-to-date on your vaccinations before registering for kindergarten and then going to school. When I taught 5th and 6th grades decades ago, I remember having to check that my 11- and 12-year-olds had to bring in documentation of their vaccination updates.
The irony is that those who are outspoken anti-vaxxers today do not realize that they most likely are alive and healthy now because of the mandatory vaccinations they had as children.
The use of vaccines in America began with smallpox, a devastating disease with a mortality rate as high as 30%. In the early 18th century, a type of smallpox vaccination known as variolation was introduced to the American colonies. This practice involved exposing individuals to material from smallpox sores to induce a mild infection and subsequent immunity. One of the earliest proponents was Cotton Mather, a Puritan minister, who learned about variolation from his African slave, Onesimus. General George Washington used this method on his soldiers, the majority of whom died from smallpox, not war injuries.
In 1796, English physician Edward Jenner developed the first actual vaccine using cowpox to protect against smallpox. This method, known as vaccination, was safer than variolation and quickly gained traction. President Thomas Jefferson was an early advocate. The eventual eradication of smallpox in 1980 marked a monumental victory for vaccination efforts worldwide.
In the 20th century, vaccines were developed against numerous infectious diseases, significantly impacting public health. Among these was the polio vaccine, a landmark in medical history. Polio epidemics had plagued the United States, crippling and killing thousands, particularly children. In 1955, Jonas Salk introduced the first effective polio vaccine, followed by Albert Sabin's oral version in the 1960s. The widespread immunization campaign that ensued was instrumental in the near-elimination of polio in the United States.
Subsequent decades saw the development of vaccines against measles, mumps, rubella, and influenza, among others. The introduction of the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine in 1971 underscores the power of combination vaccines in enhancing coverage and simplifying immunization schedules.
Measles was declared eliminated in the United States in 2000. This was thanks to a very high percentage of people receiving the vaccine for the safe and effective measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR). In recent years, however, U.S. MMR coverage among kindergarteners has decreased. It is now below the 95% coverage target—much lower in some communities, and measles, which can become deadly, is becoming prevalent again.
Vaccine technology has continued to evolve in the 21st century. The emergence of mRNA vaccines, developed at unprecedented speed, played a crucial role in combating the COVID-19 pandemic.
Contrary to the claim by many right-wingers that the COVID-19 vaccines were developed “too quickly,” the vaccines were developed based on the foundations of other medicines and vaccines already available and approved by the FDA.
By the way, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is one of the government agencies that Trump and Project 2025 want to eliminate and/or privatize, putting the health of all of us at extreme risk.
That was the kind of research and development activity my Dad and other scientists like him worked on daily for decades.
You may remember that Trump first blamed China and Chinese Americans for the spread of COVID-19. Then, even before the COVID vaccines were available, he pushed people to ignore the safe practices of mask-wearing, distancing, and the temporary closings of schools and businesses in the Spring of 2020. Ignoring the recommendations of experts like Dr. Fauci, Trump told people to inject bleach into their veins, use light to eliminate the virus from their bodies, and just wait for warm weather, when he said the virus would go away all by itself.
Trump knew about the COVID-19 vaccine as early as February 2020 but didn’t really acknowledge it until April, when it was obvious how dangerous the spreading of the virus had become. COVID-19 is extremely contagious, and especially before the vaccines became available, difficult decisions had to be made about closing schools and businesses so that fewer people would be exposed.
Because of his statements and policies, millions of Americans died needlessly, primarily minority and low-income people who worked in customer-facing jobs.
Many on the right also claim that mandatory vaccinations impede their “freedom.” What about the “freedom” of the rest of us not to get sick from preventable diseases spread by unvaccinated people?
I remember that one of the first people to die of COVID-19 here in Detroit was a city bus driver. A passenger coughed near the bus driver as he was getting on the bus, and the driver contracted COVID-19 and died the very next week.
Trump and Jared Kushner preferred red states for the scarce COVID testing machines and PPE (Personal Protective Equipment), so they made blue state governors beg and pledge their loyalty to Trump before he released anything helpful to them.
Larry Hogan, the Republican then-governor of the blue state of Maryland, had to lease private planes to go to Asia to get the PPE and COVID tests his constituents needed.
Vaccines have dramatically reduced the incidence of infectious diseases, preventing millions of deaths and enhancing quality of life. They are essential in achieving herd immunity, protecting vulnerable populations, and preventing outbreaks. The vaccine's success story reminds us of science's critical role in safeguarding public health.