A Brief History of Vaccines

A lot of people are staunchly pro-vaccines, some are militant anti-vaxxers, and much of the population is wondering what all the fuss is about. If you already have a firm viewpoint on the question of vaccinations, I’m not here to try to sway you. But if you are wondering how we got to this point with vaccinations controversy, read on.

Humans have been using vaccines for thousands of years. The first confirmed European use was in the 15th century as people tried to prevent serious illness by intentionally exposing themselves to smallpox.  By the end of the 18th century, physician Edward Jenner had designed a successful smallpox inoculation using the similar but milder cowpox virus.

At the time, smallpox was an incredibly infectious and deadly disease, killing 20-60% of people who contracted it. Still, vaccine hesitancy was already happening in the early 1800’s, with people fearing side effects, preferring to use more “natural” remedies, or resisting governmental interference in their health decisions. The term anti-vax was coined at this time.

Over the past three centuries, vaccines have been developed against numerous dangerous diseases. The earliest vaccines used live viruses—Jenner used cowpox extracted from a sore to create his first vaccine. Over time, vaccines became more sophisticated with fewer risks, including heat-treating viruses and the DNA recombinant vaccine developed in 1986 that is still used today.

Many people over the centuries embraced vaccines to reduce the risk of major illness and death for themselves and their children. As the risks associated with the vaccines diminished and trust in the medical field increased in the 20th century, vaccine hesitancy became much less common.

But there were frequently ethical issues associated with vaccination. Tests on nonconsenting Black men in the Tuskogee experiment of the 1930s are among the myriad examples of the racist and ableist history of the development of vaccines. Access to vaccines has also been riddled with discrimination.

Then in 1998, physician Andrew Wakefield published a study that linked the Measles, Mumps, and Rubella (MMR) vaccine with autism. This study has been widely discredited and Wakefield was proven to have altered the data. But before subsequent studies debunked this theory, the media distributed the false report.

Entering the 21st century, trust in government fed increased hesitancy to comply with mandates, and social media’s ease of proliferating conspiracies gave a platform to information and misinformation alike.

There is a difference between vaccine hesitancy and vaccine cynicism. While some people look for further research and reassurance, others will not be swayed regardless of the evidence.

Many Autistic adults are outspoken against the myth of vaccines causing autism. There is no evidence to the claim, which makes people with autism the unwilling justification for avoiding childhood vaccinations and decreasing the number of young children who are protected against disease.

Neither vaccines nor vaccine hesitancy are new. But it’s crucial that we base our public health decisions on evidence and concern for our communities, not conjecture and rumor.