World Immunization Day: A Look at Vaccines Through History
Vaccines have long been regarded by experts as one of the greatest public health interventions of the 20th century, second only to clean water in their impact on human health.¹ Vaccines prevent between 3.5 million to 5 million deaths from more than 20 life-threatening diseases every year.²
For World Immunization Day, we’re reflecting on centuries of scientific innovations in vaccines and looking ahead to an even brighter future fueled by innovative technologies that allow for greater speed and scale of development.
The 18th Century: Dawn of Vaccination
In 1796, English physician Edward Jenner made a groundbreaking discovery.³ He observed that milkmaids who contracted cowpox, a milder disease related to smallpox, did not seem to contract smallpox.⁴ Jenner tested his theory by inoculating 8-year-old James Phipps with cowpox and later exposing him to smallpox.⁵ Phipps remained healthy, and the world's first successful vaccine was born.⁶
The 19th Century: Building on a Legacy
Often considered the father of immunology, French scientist Louis Pasteur built on Dr. Jenner’s developments. In 1872, he developed the first laboratory vaccine for fowl cholera.⁷ Thirteen years later, he successfully prevented rabies with a post-exposure vaccination.⁸
The 20th Century: Expanding the Reach of Vaccines
Mass vaccination campaigns, including the Intensified Smallpox Eradication Programme and Global Polio Eradication Initiative, saved countless lives and led to dramatic declines in many infectious diseases, including the eradication of smallpox in 1980.⁹ This era also saw the development of vaccines for influenza, polio, hepatitis B, measles, and more.¹⁰
The 21st Century: Facing New Challenges
The new century ushered in the first vaccine to prevent cancer, a vaccine for HPV, as part of the effort to eliminate cervical cancer, along with vaccines for Ebola and malaria.¹¹
When the COVID-19 pandemic occurred, creation of a vaccine was a top priority, leading to the development and testing, production, and distribution of immunizations at unprecedented speeds.¹² The first COVID-19 vaccine was administered in December 2020, just one year after the first case of COVID-19 was identified.¹³
mRNA: The Future of Medicine
Since 2010, our team of scientists has been researching and developing mRNA to create a new category of medicines.
Messenger RNA, or mRNA, exists in every cell in our bodies, and acts as a messenger to the cells on how to make specific proteins.¹⁴ When designing mRNA vaccines, scientists create instructions to make different proteins that could help our body fight infections or prevent diseases.¹⁵
Currently, mRNA vaccines and medicines are being studied in many different disease states.¹⁶ Expanding the frontiers of mRNA medicine has the potential to profoundly impact human health one day.
Learn more about our mRNA platform: https://www.modernatx.com/en-US/power-of-mrna/science-of-mrna.
²https://www.who.int/health-topics/vaccines-and-immunization#tab=tab_1
³https://www.cdc.gov/smallpox/history/history.html
⁴Ibid.
⁵https://www.who.int/news-room/spotlight/history-of-vaccination/a-brief-history-of-vaccination
⁶Ibid.
⁷Ibid.
⁸Ibid.
⁹https://www.who.int/news-room/spotlight/history-of-vaccination/a-brief-history-of-vaccination
¹⁰Ibid.
¹¹Ibid.
¹²Ibid.
¹⁵Ibid.
¹⁴https://www.genome.gov/genetics-glossary/messenger-rna
¹⁵https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9400073/
¹⁶https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/treatments/21898-mrna-vaccines