Page 23 - Vaccines

The existence and the use of vaccines

c. The value and the importance of vaccination
in general
In the meantime, given the expansion of the pandemic
and the fears surrounding the wisdom of accessing the
vaccine, there was a very interesting, non-polemical,
presentation by Andrea Grignolio on Italian television
in January, 2021, of the fundamental importance of
vaccinations for public health, invoking key examples
from the past, emphasising the value not only for indi-
vidual health but for the health of the community and
hence the “civic responsibility” involved. Lady Montagu
in early 18ᵗʰ century Britain had had her son inoculated
against smallpox after her husband had died of the
disease; when he had been ambassador in Turkey, she
had seen women collect pus from the shoulders of
someone with the disease and insert this into the vein of
others to afford them some protection; she convinced
Caroline of Brandenburg to have some of her family
inoculated (in fact, Edward Jenner developed vaccination
against smallpox in 1798, using the less dangerous
cowpox—vaccination, from “vacca” = cow). Elvis Presley
let himself be vaccinated publicly on television in 1956
against polio at a time when the vaccination rate was low;
the result was an 80% increase in vaccinations.1⁶ In 2014
in a park in California 18 people present developed
measles, at a time when vaccinations were very low, but,
within a short time, there were 150 cases from Canada to
Mexico, and the governor of California proposed com-
pulsory vaccination, although concerns for personal
liberty made people reluctant; a six-year-old child,

1⁶ See H. Hershfield, I. Brody, “How Elvis Got Americans to
Accept the Polio Vaccine” in Scientific American (18ᵗʰ January,
2021).

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