Think Outside The Pox: Vaccines Throughout History

Unbiased Science

@unbiasedscipod

Education, Health & Fitness, Science

4.5 • 622 Ratings

🗓️ 29 March 2021

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On this week’s episode, we take a trip into the past to discuss the history of vaccines. We start with an overview of smallpox, a debilitating illness that has plagued humans for thousands of years, and how attempts to prevent smallpox resulted in the first rudimentary immunizations through the process of variolation. Over time, variolation evolved to the first instances of vaccinations, and we detail Edward Jenner’s famous accounts of using cowpox to immunize individuals against smallpox. From there, we discuss the rapid emergence of scientific advances regarding infectious diseases and vaccine technologies, tracking Pasteur’s and Koch’s work on Germ Theory of Disease and the development of rabies vaccinations. We summarize the progression and evolution of vaccines through the 19th and 20th centuries, highlighting some key examples. We discuss Diphtheria and the basis for toxoid vaccines, as well as the development of subunit vaccines which paved the way for the current vaccine technology era: using mRNA and viral vectors in vaccines. We wrap up with a summary of the global impact of vaccines, and how vaccinations have dramatically reduced the prevalence of illness and mortality of many infectious diseases around the world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	You're listening to an Airwave Media podcast.
0:04.3	Ready to launch your business? Get started with the commerce platform made for entrepreneurs.
0:09.4	Shopify is specially designed to help you start, run and grow your business with easy
0:14.2	customizable themes that let you build your brand, marketing tools that get your products out
0:18.7	there. Integrated shipping solutions that actually save you time.
0:22.0	From startups to scaleups, online, in person, and on the go.
0:26.6	Shopify is made for entrepreneurs like you.
0:29.0	Sign up for your $1 a month trial at Shopify.com slash setup.
0:35.5	Yeah, oh, I am a scientist. madness.
0:56.0	We're your hosts, Dr. Jessica Steyer and Dr. Andrea Love.
1:00.1	And last week, we had so much fun giving you guys a little history lesson on the topic of epidemiology.
1:10.0	And we took you through the different eras of epidemiology.
1:14.8	Andrew, did you want to summarize that at all or just any highlights?
1:18.6	Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, we did a good job of kind of naming the key players
1:24.6	at different eras.
1:26.5	We talked about, you know, myasma theory and hygiene era versus the germ theory era.
1:33.6	We talked about John Snow.
1:36.8	We talked about, you know, his first instance of a true epidemiological investigation, looking into the cholera outbreaks in London.
1:47.5	You love John Snow. You love that story. I love him. There's a book, there's a book called the
1:52.4	ghost map that's really about, you know, this whole story. And it's, you know, it's written for the
1:58.3	general public. And it's, it's a really good read if anybody's curious to hear more about it.
2:03.0	But it's about his spot map, right?
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from @unbiasedscipod, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of @unbiasedscipod and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.