Vaccination made modern life possible
DURING the first few weeks of the COVID-19 crisis it wasn’t altogether uncommon to hear or read that the anti-vaxxers had gone awfully quiet all of a sudden. It was never likely to last and loand-behold they’re back with a vengeance.
That shouldn’t in anyway surprise us, of course, but it’s dispiriting nevertheless, especially when people in positions of influence buy into and push the unscientific and unproven theories about the supposed dangers of vaccination. Amongst the most high-profile people to do so in the last couple of days is Novak Djokovic – the world’s number 1 tennis player. Djokovic stated that he was “personally opposed to vaccination” and if it was deemed compulsory for his return to the tennis circuit he would “have to make a decision”. In a way yeah, you know what, that’s totally fine if that’s what he thinks and believes and if he’s willing to end his career for those beliefs, as utterly misguided as they are, then so be it. He’s not exactly beloved by the fans anyway. There won’t be many tears shed for old Novak if he stays away. Still, needless to say, his intervention was an unhelpful and unwelcome one at a time when, it’s no exaggeration to say, the fate of the world rests upon the hope for a vaccine.
The only way we’re really going to be able to get on top of this thing is with a vaccine. Indeed the only way we’ve been able to build the modern world as we know it is because of vaccination. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the child mortality rate in the western world was as high as 165 per thousand. Now it’s a tiny fraction of that. Why? Because vaccines work. Vaccines have helped eradicate illnesses that blighted the world for generations. Polio? Basically wiped out now. TB? Largely eradicated. Measles (which is more dangerous than people seem to appreciate) too, bar a recent resurgence, which just serves to re-emphasise how important it is to vaccinate our young.
Mass education. Global travel. The very things which underpin our society and economy, all of it has been made possible because of vaccination. In that context the trend against it is quite baffling. Maybe it’s just complacency, why get vaccinated for a disease nobody you know has ever had? But it’s precisely for that reason that we must. A recent New York Times report revealed that a lot of the anti-vaxx disinformation is being pushed by Russia out to undermine the West. Given this it’s interesting to note that Putin is a huge proponent of vaccination within Russia. Why? Because vaccination works.