The history of vaccines shows their power — and the hope they bring

The arrival of COVID-19 vaccines in December 2020 changed the course of COVID-19 in Washington — with many people getting vaccinated to protect themselves and their communities. Currently, about 75% of people 12 and older in Washington are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. As more people get vaccinated, we get closer to putting the pandemic behind us.

For more than 200 years, vaccines have helped keep us safe. In fact, vaccines have saved millions of lives against vaccine-preventable diseases for hundreds of years, reducing the burden of diseases like tetanus and measles by 92%-100%.

Let’s explore how vaccines helped stop the spread of severe illnesses in Washington.

Edward Jenner and smallpox in Washington state

Smallpox was a fast-spreading, fatal disease that caused patients to have painful blisters on their skin. Before a vaccine existed, up to 60% of people infected with smallpox died. However, doctors in countries like Turkey were able to prevent smallpox and reduce severe illness long before a vaccine was developed, by treating healthy people with small amounts of the virus taken from sick people.

In 1796, cowpox, a skin infection from the same viral family as smallpox, caused a milder version of the disease on the hands of exposed dairy workers. Expanding on previous research, British scientist Dr. Edward Jenner found that injecting matter from a cowpox sore into his patients helped protect them from smallpox. Thus, the world’s first vaccine was born. Still, it took time for widespread adoption.

By 1913, misinformation and untrue medical advice surrounding the smallpox vaccine spread throughout the Pacific Northwest. This influenced people to refuse vaccination at the height of one of Washington’s earliest recorded pandemics. In 1919, smallpox jumped from 390 to 4,369 reported cases in Washington.

In response, local health officials required proof of vaccination at schools and in public settings. As vaccinations increased, smallpox became less common in the United States. Worldwide, the disease was declared eradicated in 1980. If you’re 41 years old or younger, you’ve lived in a world with no smallpox — thanks to vaccines.

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