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Greatest vaccine breakthroughs in US history from smallpox to COVID
Fox News • • health
Key Points:
- Vaccines have been a crucial public health tool in the U.S. for over 250 years, preventing millions of illnesses and deaths from infectious diseases such as smallpox, measles, and diphtheria.
- Smallpox was the first disease eradicated globally through vaccination, starting with Edward Jenner's vaccine in 1796, which dramatically reduced mortality and led to its eventual elimination.
- Other significant vaccines include those for rabies, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, influenza, polio, MMR (measles, mumps, rubella), hepatitis B, Hib, chickenpox, hepatitis A, pneumococcal disease, HPV, rotavirus, shingles, and COVID-19, each contributing to drastic declines in disease incidence and complications.
- The introduction of vaccines such as the polio vaccine in the 1950s and the COVID-19 vaccines in 2020 have saved millions of lives and continue to be essential in controlling infectious diseases.
- Experts emphasize that while vaccines can have side effects, their overall benefits to individual and public health far outweigh the risks, having transformed the landscape of infectious diseases in the U.S. and worldwide.
