Epidemics have been an important part of the history of humanity.

Even up to the 20th century,

disease has claimed more lives than warfare. The invention of vaccines saved millions of people
from preventable diseases, yet there is a growing number of sceptics out there. What is in these
vaccines? Why are they compulsory? Why do we even need them if they are for long-lost
diseases? Is it even worth the risk? Well, let's take a look!

------

So: What does a vaccine do?

Vaccines provide immunization for your body. It allows your immune system to build up its
defences before it has to take on the real threat. There are two types of vaccines: the first is called
passive immunization: these contain antibodies, which are the specialized weapons against the
particular threat. This type is used when someone has a weak immune system, or when time is of
the essence (in the case of a rabies vaccine when a dog bites you, or before travelling to an exotic
country). The second is active immunization, which can contain weakened or dead pathogens.
Your immune system remembers the pathogens it has encountered before, and can produce
antibodies against them. This way your body is able to learn how to defeat the disease before it
infects you.

Immunization sounds like a recent development, but physicians in the Far East have been using
similar methods in 1000 AD. They were taking scabs from the scars of smallpox victims, drying
and grinding it into a powder, and then putting it into a wound on the healthy patient. The
technique spread to Europe in the 18th century. A physician in Constantinople advocated for its
use during a smallpox outbreak that killed Joseph I, HRE and King of Hungary. The wife of the
British ambassador in Constantinople survived the infection but was left with scars. She wanted
her daughter to be safe from the disease, so she agreed to treating her with the new method. As
she became immune to smallpox, news of her case spread throughout the Western world and
desperate people started using it with significant success.

European scientists noticed that milkmaids never got infected, because earlier they had caught
cowpox, which is a much less severe variant of the disease. A British physician, Edward Jenner
tried treating children (including his own son) with cowpox scabs, and succeeded. He named this
method vaccination, from the Latin word "vacca", which means cow. It took another hundred
years for scientists to be able to actually see the pathogens causing smallpox. Louis Pasteur and
Robert Koch proved that diseases are caused by microbes, and this started an avalanche of
research that resulted in vaccines for numerous diseases. As diseases spread harder through
immunized hosts, they eventually die down and disappear.

Smallpox is thought to have killed over one billion people over the course of history, with 300
million victims in the 20th century. Infections did not spare British royalty, nor the Habsburgs.
Kölcsey Ferenc was blinded in the right eye by the disease, Josef Stalin had facial scarring for
the rest of his life. The last natural smallpox infection occurred in 1979. Today, smallpox is one
of the two infectious diseases to have been successfully eradicated, the other being rinderpest,
which was declared eradicated in 2011.
------

Other diseases, such as polio or measles have been brought to the brink of extinction in the late
20th century, however there had been outbreaks in recent years. Measles dropped from 3 million
cases to 70.000 in just 35 years, but this number doubled in four years. This is due to the fact that
a growing number of people are becoming sceptical about vaccines. "Anti-vaxxers", as media
calls them, have been around for as long as vaccines have: the French Parliament banned
vaccination early on, despite Voltaire being a fervent supporter of the method. Anti-vaxxers
believe that since these diseases are not a threat anymore, vaccines are unnecessary, if not
harmful. They believe that vaccines themselves are the cause for a number of health issues,
including heavy metal poisoning, allergies, and autism. One of the most militant vaccine-
opposers is American actress and former Playboy model Jenny McCarthy, whose son has been
diagnosed with autism at 3, which she thinks was the result of vaccines. It turns out that his son
actually has a completely different mental condition that is often misdiagnosed as autism early
on, but is easy to determine with certain medical tests. Despite this McCarthy remained a fervent
promoter of her views, until recent years.

Most of the misinformation about vaccines causing autism can be traced back to a research paper
about a small group of patients published in 1998. The research paper is now considered to be
fraudulent and the scientist's credentials have been revoked. Since then countless researchers
tried to reproduce the findings in numerous large-scale, well-funded studies, but they have failed
to do so, and instead have successfully disproven the controversial study. Six years after the
publication, a journalist investigated Wakefield's connections, and found conflicts of interest:
parents of twelve children in Wakefield's experiment were recruited by a lawyer so that they can
prepare a lawsuit against the vaccine's manufacturer. Wakefield's paper claimed that the children
started showing symptoms of autism after a week of receiving their vaccination, but in reality,
they have had the symptoms up to several months beforehand. In 2010, Wakefield was found
guilty of serious professional miscounduct, and his medical license has been revoked, but by the
time he had already made over half a million pounds, and continues to be a successful speaker at
anti-vaccine event. His case has been characterised as "perhaps the most damaging medical hoax
of the last 100 years".

And this is right, anti-vaxxers are damaging. There is an ongoing measles outbreak in Samoa:
3% of the population has been infected with the virus since September 2019, due to a recent drop
in vaccination numbers. After an incident with incorrectly prepared vaccines, people started
fearing the system, and the yearly vaccination rate dropped 40%, meaning that after a first
infection, the virus easily spread among the unvaccinated (mostly small children). Ideally, over
95% of the population should be vaccinated to achieve herd immunity, because measles is such a
contagious virus. With polio, it's around 80%. Immunology experts are questioning the role of
social media and misinformation in the outbreak. There are numerous social media personalities,
or influencers who had been campaining against vaccination in the past few years, before and
during the outbreak. Furthermore, an analysis of tweets from 2014 to 2017 revealed that the
Russian Twitter bot farm that interfered with the US elections has also been used to spread
propaganda about vaccines being ineffective and unsafe. These bots were observed making
polarizing messages for both the pro- and anti-vax sides, politicizing the issue and driving a
political wedge between the two.
------

I would like to list some of the points that anti-vaxxers use:

First, some minor issues: Vaccines do not cause pregnancy, nor homosexuality. Apparently some
people don't know that. Vaccines are effective even if you are ill. It may have separate side-
effects, and you may even get slightly sick, but the immune system can deal with your original
illness and the weakened disease at the same time.

The main reason anti-vaxxers say that vaccines cause autism is mercury. Yes, some vaccines do
contain a compound that has mercury in it: it's a preservative that keeps other components from
spoiling. In the 1920s, there was a batch of vaccines that did not contain a preservative, and 12
out of 21 children died of a Staphylococcus infection. The compound is poisonous when inhaled
or ingested, but it degrades safely when it is injected. Nevertheless, it had been removed from
most vaccines used in the US and the EU in the past 15 years, however, it is still used in other
areas, such as antivenoms, skin allergy testing and tattoo inks. The amount of mercury in a
vaccine is equal to the amount you can find in a can of tuna.

There is another concern regarding aluminium compounds, which make the immune system
respond faster and more powerfully to the vaccine, to promote antibody development. These
compounds are able to trigger minor allergic reactions such as rash or a low fever, but they are
also present in our food, aluminium cans, and even breast milk.

Formaldehyde is also used in vaccines to keep the virus or bacteria inactive. While it is toxic and
known to cause cancer, it is also an extremely simple chemical, which is actually constantly
produced by the human body and is broken down as well. Vaccines contain a very small
concentration of it, and are completely safe.

Furthermore, some vaccines contain egg proteins, which can cause an allergic reaction, but there
are also egg-free vaccine options to choose from. There are vaccines that contain gelatin, which
comes from pork, and is therefore considered to be non-kosher and non-halal by Jewish and
Islamic people, but again, there are usually alternative options to choose for those with religious
concerns.

I would like to end this presentation with my opinion on this topic. I think that even if they
would be right (and they are not), it is very sad how some parents would rather have their
children die of an easily preventable disease than risk having to raise an autistic kid. I hope that
humanity will turn around and eradicate these terrible illnesses once and for all. Thank you for
your attention, and don't forget to get your flu shot this season!