Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

Maurice Hillerman is a heroic legend in the history of modern medicine. He invented nine of the 14 vaccines available to almost every child in the world. These vaccines have made previously extremely common and deadly diseases, including mumps, rubella, measles and chickenpox, forgotten around the world, and he is therefore regarded as the "father of modern vaccines".

In addition, Maurice Hillerman (Maurice Hilleman) was the first to predict the timing of an influenza pandemic and successfully developed a vaccine before the epidemic spread to the United States; he won all the awards available to American medical researchers; and his work saved about 8 million lives a year. Because of the birth of vaccines, human life expectancy is 30 years longer than it was 100 years ago.

With an enterprising spirit, Hillerman broke through scientific barriers again and again to develop vaccines. His life is the epitome of modern epidemiology and vaccinology, and the story of vaccine is largely the story of Hillerman.

The Story of Vaccine by Paul Paul A.Offit, author of the Story of Vaccine translated by Qiu Xiaochen, co-invented the rotavirus vaccine with Hileman, and learned more about his life and career in the last few months of the great scientist. The author vividly narrates the details of Hillerman's research and development of various vaccines, and also introduces the vaccine development in the global context, outlining the history of public health for more than 200 years, while showing the gains and losses of epidemiology. it also reminds people to attach importance to the value of vaccines and the power of science to save lives and protect human well-being.

Today, I would like to share with you the preface to the recommendation written by popular science writer Liang Guibo for the book.

Vaccine: an invention that changed the history of public health Liang Guibo (Mershadon former veteran pharmacist, popular science writer, freelance writer) this year, Dr. Paul Offitt's best-selling book, "the Story of Vaccine," was republished.

About ten years ago, a colleague suggested that I translate this book into Chinese. I also thought it was a good idea. But at that time, I had already started to write the "Story of New drugs" series, and I was so busy that I put the idea aside. At a time when the global COVID-19 epidemic has not completely subsided, I learned that this book has a new edition, and it has been translated into Chinese and is about to be published. Although there is a little regret, I am still very glad that readers in the Chinese community have been able to read wonderful stories about the history of vaccines in time.

The subtitle of the new edition is: from cowpox to messenger RNA, the extraordinary story of the vaccine (From smallpox to mRNA, the remarkable story of vaccines); the subtitle of the original (2007 edition) is: one pursues to defeat the world's deadliest disease (One man's quest to defeat world's deadliest diseases).

The protagonist of this book, Dr. Offitt's "one person", is Dr. Morris Hillerman (Maurice Hilleman). Dr. Hillerman, who has worked for a long time at the Mercedes Institute for New drugs (Merck Research Laboratories), used to be my colleague and veteran. After I joined the Mercadon Institute of New drugs, I began to hear legends about Dr. Hillerman and the vaccine. Although Dr. Hillerman retired at the required age of 65 as early as 1984, he later led the establishment of the Mershadong Vaccine Institute (Merck Institute for Vaccinology), where he continued to work for another 20 years.

Throughout his life, Dr. Hillerman has experienced and led the development of more than 40 vaccines, many of which are aimed at very deadly diseases and have been hailed by the industry as "one of the true giants of science, medicine and public health in the 20th century." During the COVID-19 epidemic, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said: "it is no exaggeration to say that Morris changed the world."

As the author wrote at the end of the preface of the new edition: "the story of the vaccine is largely his story."

Morris Hillerman and the pandemic flu research team at the Walter Reed Army Medical Research Institute, the discovery of human immunity and the invention of vaccines in 1957, fundamentally rewrote the history of public health.

Before that, our ancestors were powerless to fight back against these invisible "little things" and paid a heavy price. Before achieving "mass immunity" to certain disease-causing microorganisms, there are always a large number of infections and deaths. The widespread vaccination of cowpox enabled us to acquire mass immunity against smallpox virus for the first time at a minimal cost of life, and finally eliminated the smallpox virus from the human living environment.

In addition to smallpox, there are many other very deadly infectious diseases, including COVID-19, who is still abusive, because with the "iron wall" of mass immunization, which is mainly built by a high proportion of vaccinations, there is no serious harm to human beings. so that the health and orderly life and economic order of the vast majority of people have been basically guaranteed.

The painting depicting the vaccination scene talks about "mass immunization", the most basic scientific concept in the field of public health. Since Professor Chris Whitty, the UK's chief medical adviser, and Sir Patrick Vallance, the chief scientific adviser, have proposed it at a news conference, it has been used as a method and means of fighting the epidemic, causing heated discussion. For a time, the explanation that "mass immunity can flatten the curve" appeared in almost all the media at that time. To this end, I made a special online explanation, briefly combing the context of "group immunity", and later I discussed it in the column "Lao Liang said medicine". Here, I would also like to stress again that "group immunity" is a description of the resistance of a species to a disease-causing microorganism, rather than an anti-epidemic method and means of "lying flat" or "basically lying flat". Group immunity is not only a state of "have" and "nothing", but also a process of continuous and gradual enhancement. Although the passive anti-epidemic method of inaction can eventually achieve mass immunity, the price paid for it is likely to be unbearable.

For more than a century after the advent of cowpox, the history of public health and human anti-epidemic has repeatedly shown that through large-scale vaccination of effective and safe vaccines, we can achieve and maintain the state of mass immunity at very little cost. eliminate the threat of many infectious diseases. Judging from the current situation, the COVID-19 epidemic will be no exception.

It is worth mentioning that due to the diversity and rapid variation of pathogenic microorganisms, human population immunity to a particular disease also has a variety of manifestations. For smallpox, the group immunity we established by vaccination is very effective, really achieving "zero infection", which is also the scientific basis on which we can "zero" smallpox virus in human society. This is an extreme example, and so far the only virus that has been "cleared" by group immunity, and all other viral diseases still exist more or less.

Another extreme example is the influenza virus. Influenza vaccine has been available for decades, but the influenza virus has not been eliminated, it will be more or less popular every year during the flu season, and the flu vaccine does not guarantee that people who have been vaccinated will not be infected. Because of this, many people are not very supportive of influenza vaccination, and some people even oppose it, thinking that it will do more harm than good. Because of this, the proportion of influenza vaccination has not gone up, and this problem is particularly prominent in China. Every year, the vaccination rate of influenza vaccine in China is far lower than that of developed countries, even lower than that of many developing countries, which deserves everyone's attention and promotion, especially in the field of public health.

Students with the 1957 Asian flu lie in a makeshift crib in the student union building of the University of Massachusetts. More than 100000 people in the United States have died of the virus. Although the protective power of influenza vaccine is limited, and influenza vaccines are vaccinated every year, and the group immunity accumulated by influenza vaccination and innate immunity (exposed to influenza virus) is not invulnerable, however, it has been more than 100 years since the last global influenza outbreak, which is still the result of imperfect "group immunity". By the same token, the collective immunity of human beings as a whole to most of the mutated strains of novel coronavirus produced through vaccination and innate immunity has reached a critical value, and the spread of novel coronavirus will be controlled below a certain threshold and will not trigger another large-scale epidemic.

This day should not be far away.

The Story of Vaccine tells us that the timely development of safe and effective vaccines is the magic weapon for us to overcome a variety of deadly infectious diseases, including various new infectious diseases that may emerge in the future. At the same time, we must also be soberly aware that, like other new technologies, vaccine development is not smooth, there have been a variety of problems in history, and even quite serious safety problems. However, none of these can be used as a reason for us to oppose all vaccines.

Via:www.dna.fr virus is varied, and the vaccines developed with different vaccine technologies are also different for different viruses. Some vaccines are highly protective and can gain lifelong immunity after a single vaccination, such as cowpox, while others, such as tetanus, are re-vaccinated every few years. Some reactions after vaccination are so intense that they require bed rest, while others have almost no perceptible reaction after vaccination. If we consider the individual differences of vaccination, the results will certainly be more varied, and it is impossible to draw a simple conclusion of "one size fits all".

As the author of the book says in the preface to the new edition, "actually, it's not surprising." As long as we study big data in the real world since the advent of the vaccine and analyze it with statistical tools, the most important research method of modern data science, it is not difficult to find that there is no doubt about the role of vaccine on human health. and it's irreplaceable.

Vaccine Story reviews the history of vaccine development, from Edward Zenner's vaccinia to groundbreaking messenger RNA COVID-19 vaccine, and Vaccine Story recreates the legendary life of Dr. Morris Hillerman, from his youngest daughter's mumps to the flu outbreak in Hong Kong. With vivid brush strokes and firsthand interview materials, the author takes us through time and space, travels the world, takes a person's story as the focus, reproduces one of the most important history in the history of public health, and sets up a monument for us to respect moral people.

The COVID-19 epidemic, which has been sweeping the world for more than two years, tells us that the threat of disease-causing microorganisms to human health has not disappeared with the development of science and technology. Today, with more and more densely populated people, the possibility of large-scale spread is increasing rather than decreasing, and the future is also full of uncertainty.

For all people who are concerned about human health, the Story of Vaccine is a rare good book.

July 2022, New Jersey, USA

Morris Hillerman is a heroic legend in the history of modern medicine. He invented nine of the 14 vaccines available to almost every child in the world. These vaccines have made previously extremely common and deadly diseases, including mumps, rubella, measles and chickenpox, forgotten around the world, and he is therefore regarded as the "father of modern vaccines".

In addition, he was the first to predict the timing of an influenza pandemic and successfully developed a vaccine before the epidemic spread to the United States; he won all the awards that American medical researchers could win; and his work saved about 8 million lives a year. Because of the birth of vaccines, human life expectancy is 30 years longer than it was 100 years ago.

With an enterprising spirit, Hillerman broke through scientific barriers again and again to develop vaccines. His life is the epitome of modern epidemiology and vaccinology, and the story of vaccine is largely the story of Hillerman.

Offit and Hillerman co-invented the rotavirus vaccine and learned more about his life and career in the last few months of the great scientist. The author vividly narrates the details of Hillerman's research and development of various vaccines, and also introduces the vaccine development in the global context, outlining the history of public health for more than 200 years, while showing the gains and losses of epidemiology. it also reminds people to attach importance to the value of vaccines and the power of science to save lives and protect human well-being.

Paul A.Offit, MD, is a pediatrician specializing in infectious diseases, an expert in vaccine, immunology and virology, and one of the co-inventors of a rotavirus vaccine.

He is a professor of vaccination at Morris R. Hillerman, a professor of pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and director of the Center for Vaccine Education at the Children's Hospital in Philadelphia. Currently, as a member of the Vaccine working Group of the National Institutes of Health, he is working to fight COVID-19. He is also a member of the Advisory Committee on FDA Vaccines and related Biological products and the Advisory Committee on Immunization practice of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

As an expert in the field of vaccines, he has received many awards, including the J.Edmund Bradley Pediatrics Excellence Award from the University of Maryland School of Medicine; the Young fellow Award for Vaccine Development from the American Society of Infectious Diseases; and the Research career Development Award from the National Institutes of Health.

This article comes from the official account of Wechat: non-fictional time (ID:non-fiction702), author: Liang Guibo

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