The race for vaccines: lessons from history
As the campaign to vaccinate the population against Covid-19 picks up pace, Gareth Williams explores previous efforts to combat lethal diseases, from smallpox to polio
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Gareth Williams, emeritus professor of medicine at the University of Bristol, traces historical efforts to vaccinate populations against killer infections – from Edward Jenner’s eureka moment with smallpox in 18th-century England to rival scientists’ bitter battle to conquer polio in 1950s America.
