Danielle Mehlenbacher, D.O.: The history and importance of vaccines

The COVID-19 vaccine must almost be whispered in a crowded room these days because of the mixed opinions about it. The truth is vaccines have been controversial since their development.

The first vaccine developed was the smallpox vaccine by Edward Jenner in 1796. Jenner took a small amount of pus from a dairy maid infected with cowpox, an illness like smallpox, and injected the pus into a small boy.

The boy soon fell ill with cowpox. When the boy recovered, Jenner injected the boy with smallpox, and the boy did not develop smallpox.

This discovery enabled the development of the first vaccine. Just as soon as the smallpox vaccine was created, so too was the anti-vaccine movement which consisted of people who were concerned that their children would turn into cows if they received the smallpox vaccine.

These people held many more unrelated but just as wild fears. Despite these fears, smallpox was eradicated globally in 1980, thanks to the vaccine.

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Despite a questionable start, vaccines are the safest they have ever been in the United States. The National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act passed in 1986 ensures certain safety practices, from providing patients with the vaccine information sheets that every person is given at his/her/their physician’s office, to creating a committee that monitors vaccine reactions to make sure that they are safe.

That is not to say that vaccines never cause any reactions. Common reactions to any vaccine include pain where you received the injection, low grade fevers, feeling achy, and feeling tired for up to two days.

Even though the reactions to vaccines can be uncomfortable, the reactions are almost universally less severe than the illnesses they are preventing.

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Thanks to modern vaccines, we are able to prevent illnesses, such as meningitis and polio, that used to terrify parents. More recently, modern science has provided us with vaccines that prevent cancer, like the HPV vaccine.

Traditional vaccines prime your body’s immune system by presenting a weakened, or dead, virus or bacteria so antibodies against it can be made. When your body is exposed to the virus or bacteria again, the antibodies are already available and can be made easily to prevent infection.

Newer mRNA vaccines teach your body how to make antibodies against a protein that the target virus has in its cell. The protein will cause an immune response when your body is exposed to the virus in the future.

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Vaccine technology is constantly evolving. What never seems to change is that vaccines are created and updated to protect the population against some of its biggest threats.

Contact your primary-care provider to make sure you are up to date on all the recommended vaccines for your age and health conditions.

Danielle Mehlenbacher, D.O., is a UPMC Hamot family medicine physician.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Danielle Mehlenbacher, D.O.: The history and importance of vaccines