There is a strong case to argue that Blossom, a dairy cow in 1796 England, has saved more lives than any human ever has. She was helped to do that, in no small way, by Edward Jenner, an English physician, who used material from her cowpox lesions to demonstrate that exposure to a less severe virus could provide immunity against a more dangerous one – namely, smallpox. This groundbreaking discovery marked the advent of modern vaccination, revolutionising global health.
Past successes
Smallpox’s earliest known victim was Ramses V in 1157 BC Egypt, and it continued to ravage human populations for over 3000 years. In the last hundred years of smallpox’s existence, it killed half a billion people. Today, as on every day since the 1980s, it has killed zero.
Jenner’s work was only the beginning. In the centuries since his initial discovery, vaccines have saved countless lives. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that vaccines prevent 2 - 3 million deaths annually. Along with the eradication of smallpox, diseases such as polio, measles, diphtheria and tetanus have been significantly reduced.
One impactful vaccine is the DTP vaccine, which protects against diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis (whooping cough). Introduced in the 1940s, the DTP vaccine has played a crucial role in lowering the incidence of these serious diseases. Before that, diphtheria and pertussis were major causes of childhood illness and mortality. The DTP vaccine has drastically decreased the number of cases and deaths, contributing significantly to global health improvements.
Challenges today
Despite their success, vaccines have faced numerous challenges. Scientific, logistical, and political obstacles have had to be overcome during their development and distribution.
Today’s funding crisis in global health has created further significant barriers. Limited resources and financial constraints have hindered efforts to provide vaccines to all corners of the world, particularly in low-income countries. The recent cuts to aid around the world, including UK aid cuts, will deepen this inequality and cost the lives of the children who will now go unreached by basic vaccines. Not everyone involved in vaccine development has been as generous as Jonas Salk, who famously refused to patent the polio vaccine to ensure it was made as widely available as possible.
Misinformation, fear and distrust have led to reluctance or refusal to vaccinate, posing a threat to public health. This hesitancy can lead to outbreaks of preventable diseases, reversing decades of progress. During the Covid pandemic, for example, some people felt frustrated by certain policy decisions.
However, this is separate from the decades of rigorous scientific evidence demonstrating vaccine safety and effectiveness. Vaccines are backed by extensive clinical trials, real-world data and peer-reviewed research by scientists worldwide. Over more than two centuries, vaccines have prevented millions of deaths and cases of serious illness, from polio to measles to COVID-19.
We can have important conversations about pandemic preparedness, government communication, and balancing public health with individual freedoms. But these policy discussions shouldn't cast doubt on the life-saving power of vaccines themselves. The science is clear: vaccines are one of our most effective tools for preventing serious disease and protecting both individual and community health.
Opportunities of the future
Crucially, vaccination is not simply a moral good, but an imperative for global health security. As we saw during the COVID-19 pandemic, cross-border contamination highlights the importance of vaccines on a global scale. Diseases do not respect borders, and international travel can facilitate the spread of infections. Vaccination programmes are vital in preventing outbreaks that can quickly become future pandemics.
The recent approval of the world's first malaria vaccine marks a turning point in the fight against diseases that have haunted communities for centuries. No longer will mothers in malaria-endemic regions face the helpless terror of watching their children succumb to a mosquito bite. This breakthrough is just the beginning. Revolutionary TB vaccines are moving through final trials, targeting a disease that continues to claim over a million lives each year.
Each advance is founded on generations of scientific effort, turning deadly diseases into preventable conditions. For families everywhere, this wave of vaccine innovation signals a future where fewer diseases threaten them and where science continues to expand the shield of protection around their loved ones.
What next?
Groundbreaking vaccines mean nothing if they can't reach the people who need them. Organisations like Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, which the UK government has just committed to supporting up to 2030, play a crucial role in bridging this gap and ensuring vaccines get to those who need them most.
At Save the Children we are proud to partner with Gavi to deliver lifesaving vaccines to tens of thousands of children in conflict-riven Sudan, who would otherwise not be protected against deadly diseases. We will continue to fight to secure funding and support for organisations like Gavi so that work like this can continue.
However, that path is fraught with challenges. The fight to secure funding for vaccines is hard enough, without those who seek to use misinformation to undermine that struggle and the science that underpins it.
Vaccines have a storied history of triumphs, have saved millions of lives, and continue to be a beacon of hope in addressing health inequities.
Today, they play an indispensable role in maintaining global health. Together, as a global community, we must make sure they continue to do so in the future.
