Vaccine Nation: science, reason and the threat to 200 years of progress

Vaccine Nation by Raina MacIntyre investigates the progress in the provision of vaccinations for a variety diseases since a vaccine was initially used to prevent smallpox in the 1880s. During the 1950s vaccines were first used to prevent polio in Australia. Since then many diseases including measles, mumps, chicken pox, rubella, whooping cough, tetanus, tuberculosis and diphtheria have been controlled via vaccination. Research into influenza prevention began after the Spanish Flu pandemic between 1918 and 1920. Vaccinations are also available to limit pneumonia and more recently COVID-19 and its varieties. 

Although Australians have generally accepted the need for vaccination, especially for childhood diseases, since our recent experience with COVID-19 there has been a growing increase in the anti-vax movement, not just against COVID-19 but against vaccinations in general. The use of social media has been responsible for the spread much of the anti-vax information.

In May each year my husband and I have the annual flu injection plus the latest injection against recent COVID-19 variations. I have just had the first in the series of the new Shingles vaccine - having had the disease three times I am happy to try something that may prevent me getting the disease again or at least limit its effects. I am having the second injection later this year. Meanwhile my husband and I will have the update to the pneumonia injection that we had many years ago. Family history research has shown that we each had a grandfather who died from pneumonia, before the availability of penicillin to treat the disease and vaccine availability.

Australians queued up for the initial injections to control COVID-19, particularly in order for the country to go back to normal. The initial injections were compulsory, especially as so many had died or remained ill. It was imperative to at least slow the spread of the disease. Professor MacIntyre discusses present government policies restricting free vaccination to young people and older citizens. However local pharmacies can give some injections to other sectors of the population. She also discusses new research that may assist in the treatment of some cancers or even heart disease in the future.

Meanwhile progress in preventing and treating illness via vaccination will only work if Australians work together to create an environment where it is accepted that vaccination against disease not only helps individuals but the community as a whole. Vaccination Nation is an interesting and informative study of the acceptance of vaccination against disease as part of our general health.  

Vaxxers

'The inside story of the Oxford AstraZenica vaccine and the race against the virus' is the sub-title of the book, The Vaxxers, by Professor Sarah Gilbert and Dr Catherine Green. The book looks at how and why the vaccine was developed in such a short time during 2020. The laboratory at Oxford University had experience working on other coronavirus vaccines so, once the structure of the new virus was established, it was a matter of working out how the research already undertaken could possibly be successfully adapted for tackling COVID-19.

Creating a workable vaccine is only one part of the task when making a vaccine to defeat a pandemic that is killing millions of people throughout the world. Acquiring sufficient funding to develop a vaccine and then finding a pharmaceutical company able to make and distribute large quanties of the vaccine is only one part of the equation. 

The vaccine has to go through many testing procedures that take months before final approval is granted by a variety of medical boards throughout the world. Then there was the media wanting a story. One piece of bad press could destroy public support for a project as well as provide fuel for conspiracy theories circulating about vaccines throughout the world. Derogatory comments from polititians, including those from other countries, also provided issues when trying to establish public confidence in a new vaccine.

The two authors write different chapters in this reader friendly description of working on the project which took over their lives in 2020.  The chapters also often include accounts of how working on the project affected their family lives. An original premise for writing a book about the vaccine for the general public was, by explaining how the vaccine was developed, to tackle concerns of anti-vaxxers.

But the chief emphasis is on the need to defeat a pandemic. At the beginning of each chapter there is a summary of the growing number of cases and deaths up to a point in time which emphasises how rapidly the vaccine was spreading.  The authors also emphasise that the work is far from over. The vaccine is mutating and alterations to the vaccine may be needed in the future to counter variants. There is also an awareness that another disease could be around the corner and preparations need to be made to tackle the next health challenge.

This is a book that everyone should read, those of us who have been vaccinated against the virus as well as those who are hesitating.

The End of Men

It is November 2025 and Dr Amanda MacLean is working a shift in A&E at a Glasgow hospital when she observes a number of male patients with high temperatures attending. Shortly afterwards the men are dead. This new virus only affects men but women are carriers. A small percentage of the male population is immune but 90 percent will die unless a vaccine is found - quickly.

Each chapter of the novel shows an aspect of the story through the eyes of one person including Amanda, Elizabeth (an American scientist who relocates to the UK to work on a vaccine solution), Catherine (an anthropologist who is documenting stories about the Plague), Lisa (a Canadian looking for a vaccine) and Dawn (British Intelligence Service). The titles of each section of the novel summarise the effect of the Plague on the world - Before, Outbreak, Panic, Despair, Survival, Recovery, Strength, Adaption and Remembrance.

The End of Men by Christina Sweeney-Baird is largely about relationships as women come to terms with the reality that they may lose their menfolk - husbands, sons, fathers. It is about coping with grief (with different people coping in different ways); adapting to an entirely different environment including the need for women to take over roles previously held by men; gender inequality as well as attempts to find a cure. A note from the author at the front of the book states that much of this work was written before the current pandemic finishing the first draft in mid 2019. An interesting novel to read in these challenging times.