Vaccines Save Lives
Vaccines and immunization have helped save lives for more than two centuries. For those interested in how vaccines have provided immunity to some of the world’s worst diseases, The History of Vaccines is an educational resource by the College of Physicians of Philadelphia that goes into great detail about the timeline of the first vaccine up to today. The Canadian Public Health Association also offers a relevant history of vaccines beginning in 1798 – when British doctor, Edward Jenner, first inoculated against smallpox, giving hope that the deadly disease could be controlled. In addition, the Museum of Health Care, in Kingston, ON, has an online exhibit: Vaccines and Immunization – Epidemics, Prevention and Canadian Innovation.
The fact that vaccines have been successful has also created a challenge in that people around the world can often take them for granted. Until COVID-19, many people had not faced the devastating effects of an infectious disease, which meant that their understanding of the value of immunization was in theory, not from experience. Add to this the more recent issue of the politicizing of vaccines in some countries – especially the COVID-19 vaccine – and the result is that some members of our community may be skeptical of the importance of vaccines. In seeing the growing number of people who have been misinformed or who choose to ignore history and science, it becomes clear that it is important to provide validated scientific details – the facts – about the safety and efficacy of vaccines throughout history.
At Acuitas Therapeutics, we believe that it is crucial that people are aware of how vaccines have saved lives in the past and the importance of a COVID-19 vaccine in eradicating this deadly disease that is devastating communities around the globe.
Diseases that Vaccines Can Prevent
You can see a solid list of some of the major diseases that vaccines can prevent here. And there are so many more. Think about some of the diseases that are no longer a serious threat – chickenpox, polio, measles, diphtheria, rubella (German measles), whooping cough, tetanus and seasonal flu strains to name just a few. We should also recognize that many of these diseases primarily effect the most vulnerable amongst us – young children and the elderly.
Think about this: The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that two to three million deaths are prevented each year from diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough and measles because of immunization.
Smallpox is another common and deadly infectious disease that has been eradicated because of a vaccine. According to the Centre for Disease Control (CDC), reasonable estimates indicate that the vaccine saves around five million people per year. Think about what that means: between 1980 and 2020, approximately 200 million lives have been saved. That matters.
At the time of writing this post, an estimated 1.25 million people worldwide have died as a result of COVID-19. Imagine what it will be like when we have a vaccine and this awful virus is controlled.
Vaccines save lives. That is a fact.
If you have questions about vaccines, please email us at: bd@acuitastx.com. We will address them in this blog series.
