Vaccinology Tales
Liveryman Dr Tony Lockett, an expert member on the UK COVID challenge ethics committee, gave us a fascinating insight into the history and development of vaccines.
For those who were not able to join the event, did you know there are some 300 vaccines currently in development, with 30 in clinical trials involving 280,000 participants at 500 sites in 30 different countries!
The forerunner to vaccination was variolation and was first used to immunise individuals against smallpox. Using material taken from a patient or a recently variolated individual, another person was inoculated in the hope that a mild, but protective, infection would result. In fact, infection has shaped the development of man through genetic resistance.
Medical science has progressed much since then and most modern vaccines are related to others “in families”. The rapid development of the newly approved Covid vaccines has not been via short-cuts, but because of the huge resources that have been thrown at it, enabling parallel paths to be followed. A lesson for the future?
Tony’s lecture included some anecdotal stories from personal experience and we thank him for such an open insight into such a topical subject. If you would like to see it again or you missed it last time, please click on the image/link below: