Vaccines are saving the world not just technology Western Media stated that since humans developed the first smallpox vaccine, science has been continuously improving. Various vaccines such as measles and rubella have been developed one after another. However, the real role of vaccines in saving the world depends on people’s awareness of vaccination and whether vaccine management is in place.
According to a report on the website of the Spanish newspaper “Izvestia” on November 10, “You have tore off the cruelest page from the human suffering calendar. You should be relieved that mankind will never forget you.” Thomas Jefferson, the founding father of the United States In 1806, he gave such a high praise to the British doctor Edward Jenner. This is because Jenner developed the first smallpox vaccine in history in the previous 10 years.
Although the disease was not eradicated until 1977, 180 years later, it was the only virus-induced epidemic that mankind successfully defeated. Immunization against viruses and bacteria that cause epidemics has never been an easy task. Since Jenner’s time, science has been continuously improving. On November 9 this year, Pfizer just announced that the effectiveness of its new coronavirus vaccine developed by it reached 90%. The many achievements of companies represented by Pfizer show that after entering the era of laboratory vaccines and industrialization, mankind can use vaccines to control epidemics more quickly.
According to the report, another major leap occurred in the Louis Pasteur laboratory in Paris. The French scientist first proposed the theory of bacterial infection, which played a vital role in the correct understanding of bacteria and viruses. Pasteur successfully replicated most of the infectious pathogens he studied in the laboratory, although he has been unable to decipher the behavior of the virus.
In 1879, nearly a century after the first smallpox vaccine came out, Pasteur developed an avian cholera vaccine. After some bacteria are sufficiently weakened, the body can recognize them and use the immune system to attack them. Using the same method, he also developed a rabies vaccine. However, certain groups have also begun to oppose vaccination, thinking it is unethical and very dangerous. In a sense, the anti-vaccination movement is the real enemy of immunization.
According to reports, inactivated vaccines appeared after attenuated vaccines, and these two methods have been used for a long time. Until the second half of the last century, American scientists became leaders in the field of vaccine research. In 1955, Jonas Salk successfully developed the world’s first inactivated polio vaccine. In 1962, Andre Savin, who was also an American, developed an attenuated vaccine after working with scientists from the former Soviet Union during the Cold War. In just 25 years, polio completely disappeared from the United States and is now almost extinct in other parts of the world.
At the same time, the American microbiologist Morris Hillerman is known as the father of modern vaccines. From the 1960s to the 1970s, he developed effective vaccines for measles, rubella, mumps, bacterial meningitis and hepatitis C.
However, affected by the anti-vaccine movement, cases have begun to increase in recent years. This type of method will not work if you do not continue to vaccinate from childhood. For hundreds of years, many diseases have been successfully prevented, but mankind has also paid a huge price for this. Although Pfizer has made great progress in the field of new coronavirus vaccines, it will not help if vaccine management is not in place.
