Mass Vaccination

Chances are that you have taken part in a mass vaccination of some description. You might remember the most recent time but you probably don't know about all your childhood vaccines. Ask your parents and the answer to all of the different diseases you have needed protection against may surprise you. Mass vaccination has been a large part of the UK's operation against dangerous diseases since the advent of the National Health Service in 1948, but it wasn't always this way. Let's examine the history of vaccinations and how they became essential to saving lives in the UK.

Mass vaccination meaning

First things first, let's try and understand exactly what mass vaccination is.

Vaccination refers to a way of treating disease by the use of a vaccine to create immunity. This has become an effective method of tackling epidemics and pandemics. The idea of mass vaccination is to deliver a large number of doses at one time. In doing this, the population create herd immunity meaning that bacteria and viruses cannot spread effectively. This can ultimately lead to the extinction of a disease.

History of mass vaccinations

Until the 1700s, there was almost no way of directly preventing disease. This changed when Lady Mary Wortley Montagu returned from Turkey in 1718 and spread her knowledge of inoculation to treat smallpox, which at the time was an epidemic without a cure.

Inoculation is a process whereby a patient is infected by a disease in order to give them future immunity. In Montagu's method, a cut was made in a patient's arm. Pus from an infected smallpox sufferer was then placed inside the wound. Unfortunately, this was not wholly successful; smallpox was a deadly disease and giving it to a patient could often prove fatal. It did nothing to lessen the spread and in 1751 3,500 smallpox deaths were recorded in London alone.¹ Not until the work of Edward Jenner did a genuine vaccine breakthrough occur.

The birth of vaccinations

Jenner was a countryside doctor who worked on farms. Whilst carrying out his duties, he noticed a curiosity. The milkmaids did not contract smallpox.

Instead, they caught a similar disease, the far milder cowpox. Jenner needed to enquire further about this link. In doing so, he did a scientific experiment, a practice rare for his period.

Fig. 1 - Edward Jenner

In 1796, Jenner used the pus from the sores of milkmaid Sarah Nelmes who had cowpox. He injected it into James Phipps and subsequently infected him with smallpox. Miraculously, he didn't catch the deadly disease. Publishing his findings in 1798, he invented the word vaccination using the Latin word for cow, "vacca".

There was some initial scepticism towards vaccines, not least because of the hysteria of getting a cow disease, but also due to the fear of doctors who gave inoculations that they would lose business.

These initial hesitations were brushed aside and with the funding of parliament, a vaccination centre was opened. Given the effectiveness of the vaccine, it soon became compulsory in 1853 and had a fantastic impact on reducing the spread of smallpox. Unfortunately, Jenner would never find out as he died in 1823, just less than 40 years before Louis Pasteur's Germ Theory (1861).

Fig. 2 - Robert Koch memorial in Berlin

Mass vaccination 1: Diphtheria

• A disease that had plagued much of the world during the first half of the 20th century, diphtheria is characterised by difficulty breathing and can prove fatal.
• In 1923, scientists Manny and Hopkins used formaldehyde to create diphtheria and tetanus vaccines.
• After World War II had already started, in 1940 diphtheria caused 60,000 cases and 3000 deaths in Britain.
• Fearing the spread of a dangerous disease during wartime conditions, the government embarked on a vaccination program, targeting children to create herd immunity.
• After the establishment of the National Health Service (NHS) in 1948, all children were able to be vaccinated by the time they were one year old.
• The government campaigned on a huge scale, using radio, TV and posters.
• It was a success; in 1957 there were only 38 cases of diphtheria and 6 deaths.

Mass vaccination 2: Polio

• Another disease that is particularly dangerous for children, polio attacks the central nervous system, digestion and the bloodstream causing paralysis (loss of ordinary muscle function).
• It had a devastating effect slightly after diphtheria. Over 30,000 children became disabled as a result of polio between 1947 and 1958.
• In 1956 the British vaccination campaign began. It focused on vaccinating everyone who was under 40.
• In 1960 Polish-American Albert Sabin developed a polio vaccine that could be swallowed orally which had greater efficacy and provided longer immunity than an injection. It is still used today for its convenience.
• Again the campaign proved a success. Polio was virtually extinct in the UK by the 1970s.
• Once more the centralised coordination of the NHS was instrumental in driving the campaign.

Mass vaccination: benefits and risks

As demonstrated by the above statistics, it is clear that mass vaccinations have an overwhelmingly positive effect.

Fig. 3 - Anti-vaccine protest in Berlin, January 2022

However, they don't come without their fair share of risks. We will examine the positives and drawbacks of mass vaccinations below.

Impact of mass vaccinations

The impact of mass vaccinations cannot be understated. Experts have argued that apart from sanitised water no other development has contributed to population growth and mortality reduction in the same way as mass vaccination.²

It is hard to argue with this and we have seen vaccines as the key contributor to the lifting of restrictions in the UK during the current Covid-19 pandemic.

Mass vaccinations, then, are another example of effective centralised coordination that the establishment of the NHS has allowed for. Their hands-on approach to public health and lifestyle has saved many lives. Health organisations work in cahoots with pharmaceutical companies; for Covid-19 factories use computers that produce 600 vaccines in a single minute.

1. College of Physicians of Philadelphia, 'London Smallpox Deaths', The History of Vaccines. (2022)

2. Plotkin and Mortimer, 'Vaccines', Philadelphia, PA: Saunders. (1998)