Vaccines, the backbone of modern preventative medicine for decades, have recently been brought into the political spotlight by a measles outbreak in Texas and the response by Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vaccine skeptic.
While the idea that exposure to smallpox—an extremely deadly and contagious disease dating from at least 1350 B.C.E.—could render one immune has been around at least since the 15th century, the first true vaccine was developed by British immunologist Edward Jenner in 1796. His breakthrough was achieved by using cowpox, a much less deadly relative of smallpox, to build smallpox immunity. Jenner purposefully infected an 8-year-old boy, James Phipps, with a cowpox sample. Two months later, he again infected Phipps, this time with smallpox itself. The boy did not fall ill. Jenner’s vaccination method was endorsed by French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte and American President Thomas Jefferson. During the 19th century, the World Health Organization (WHO) launched a massive vaccination campaign with the goal of eradicating smallpox. In 1979, the WHO declared the disease eradicated, with only a few laboratory samples of the virus remaining.
Over the 18th century, Louis Pasteur was a key pioneer in the emerging field of vaccines, developing both a vaccine for fowl cholera (a chicken ailment) and rabies. The methods used to develop the rabies vaccine, which involved injecting a healthy man with the powerful virus, would not be considered ethical today. Vaccination began to be considered as a facet of public health after the global influenza epidemic of 1918-19. The U.S. military, which lost nearly 2 percent of its soldiers to the virus, made influenza vaccine development and distribution a strategic priority. Over the next few decades, vaccines for yellow fever, influenza and pertussis (whooping cough) were developed. By far the most famous vaccine from this era is the polio vaccine invented by Jonas Salk. Polio was an incredibly feared disease before the vaccine, killing or paralysing half a million people each year. Many victims, including American President Franklin D. Roosevelt, lost use of their legs, while others had to live in an “iron lung”, an artificial respiration machine. Salk’s vaccine, as well as Albert Sabin’s orally administered polio vaccine, paved the way for the elimination of polio. Czechoslovakia became the first country to eliminate polio in 1960, and by 2021 there were only 2 cases of wild poliovirus in humans.
The most recent major development in vaccine technology is, of course, the Covid-19 vaccine. While the vaccine was developed in record-breaking time and was distributed across the world, the development and distribution of the vaccine were controversial, facing accusations both of being unsafe (from the right) and inequitable distribution (from the left).
One reason for the suspicion surrounding the Covid-19 vaccine was due to the fact that it employs a different method to immunize the body than traditional vaccines use. The basic premise of all vaccines since the days of Jenner is that limited exposure to a certain virus in a healthy person will give them immunity to the virus later on. This is because white blood cells, the basic component of our immune system, use “antibodies”—types of proteins— to attach onto viruses and kill them. When fighting a virus, white blood cells “learn” to recognize the virus and develop specific antibodies that can be used to fight them. To exploit this phenomenon, vaccines give healthy bodies samples of a dead or severely weakened virus. While these samples do not cause the recipient to fall sick (although the person receiving the vaccine might experience some mild, temporary symptoms), the white blood cells still develop antibodies in response, which can be immediately used in the event of future infections. The messenger RNA technology (mRNA) used for the two main Covid vaccines (Pfizer – BioNTech and Moderna) takes advantage of the same effect but, instead of introducing the actual virus, introduces synthetic copies of their “spike proteins” which the body can still use to develop antibodies.
It is possible for vaccines, including mRNA-derived ones, to have side effects, ranging from trivial to serious. Vaccines can trigger potentially life-threatening allergic reactions or anaphylaxis. For the mRNA vaccines in particular, there is a slight risk of myocarditis, or the inflammation of the heart muscle. In very rare cases, this can lead to serious illness or to death.
Back when smallpox and polio were widespread diseases, vaccines usually did not incite much controversy, as they offered an easy way to eliminate sickness and suffering. However, in the last few decades, an “anti-vaxxer” movement has grown, promoting theories that link vaccines with serious side effects or chronic illnesses. Perhaps the most well-known assertion of this movement, and of its leaders such as Secretary Kennedy, is that vaccines cause autism, a neurological condition. This assertion has very little to no scientific support and has been debunked by numerous studies. However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), under Kennedy’s authority, plan to conduct a review of any possible link.
The anti-vaccine ideology of Kennedy and his followers has been immediately put to the test by a measles outbreak in the states of Texas and New Mexico. The outbreak originated in Mennonite communities in Gaines County, Tx., which have very low rates of vaccination. The outbreak has infected at least 200 and has resulted in the first U.S. death from measles in ten years. Traditionally, the immediate public health response to measles outbreaks is to highly encourage vaccination among unvaccinated people in the area. In Gaines County, the measles vaccination rate for kindergarteners is 82%, well below the 95% needed for “herd immunity”. The high number of home-schooled children in the county might make the former figure even lower. However, Kennedy has been somewhat circumspect in his public health advice, recommending increased uptake of the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine while simultaneously repeating fringe theories about vaccine side effects and the efficacy of “natural remedies”. In an interview with Fox News, Kennedy claimed that the measles vaccine had harmed dozens of Texan children, asserted that “natural immunity” from measles (i.e., contracting the disease and then recovering) is a bulwark against some chronic diseases, and praised cod liver oil as a treatment for the disease. The latter two assertions fit with a recent societal trend of seeking “natural” remedies and lifestyles in response to the epidemic of chronic disease in the United States.
One effect of the anti-vaccine movement has been the rise in religious/conscientious objections to child vaccination in schools. While all 50 U.S. states require certain vaccinations for schoolchildren, thirty states and the District of Columbia allow religious, philosophical or personal exemptions to vaccination.
For comparison, Frankfurt International School does not offer these exemptions. According to Karen McEwan, a school nurse, FIS requires all students to be vaccinated against measles, as per German law. The school does not grant any exemptions, she said, “except for some medical reasons.” During the Covid pandemic, the school also had a Covid vaccination requirement, but this has been dropped in recent years.
