n 1969, a debate took place between John M. Neff, MD, and Samuel Lawrence Katz, MD, on whether to continue to immunize children against smallpox given that, at the time, the disease was under control in the country. (Think of polio today, where it is found only in areas of Central Asia, yet children in the United States and other countries continue to receive the vaccine.) The debate was televised and archived by the US National Library of Medicine.
We at The History of Vaccines love timelines. They help explain historical events in a way that is a little more entertaining than a boring list of important dates. Below is a small project started before the pandemic that I only now got around to finishing. It is the story of the Balmis Expedition, an expedition by Spanish physicians and their team to take the newly developed smallpox vaccine to the Spanish colonies in the Americas and Asia.
The COVID-19 pandemic is having effects beyond those people who get infected and have complications. Low vaccination rates and reluctance to seek medical attention for emergencies are complicating the outcome of the pandemic response.
As the influenza season progresses, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) publishes estimates…
While diseases like Ebola or Coronavirus make the news and scare many people, there are a myriad of other zoonotic diseases that make thousands sick each year as well.