Getting sick for the greater good

The vast majority of people hate getting sick, feeling ill or being out of commission in any shape or form, so to speak. For populations in under-devloped countries, viruses and diseases can be absolutely disaterous. For the working population globally, missing work due to illness or being incapacitated is often simply not an option. Therefore we deploy methods of keeping ourselves as healthy as possible for as long as possible. Often these preventative methods come in the form of vaccinations to keep us from falling prey to seasonal and contagious diseases and viruses. One of the most recent vaccines was borne out of necessity during the COVID-19 pandemic, and with it came a wave of controversy too as there are many vaccination and modern medicine sceptics.

Anti-vaxxers are nothing new, understandably there are always going to be those who question the validity and effectiveness of ‘modern’ or ‘western’ medicine. Globally, many cultures draw on their own remedies and belief systems when it comes to addressing illnesses. That being said, vaccinations are used prolifically worldwide as a preventative measure against innumerable diseases. Vaccines are designed to address pathogens that enter the body and cause diseases. They do this by triggering an immune response within the body through the use of an antigen. It’s important to note that the weakened strain cannot cause the disease in the recipient of the vaccine, but rather teaches the body how to fight the pathogen. No vaccination is able to provide 100% protection, that being said, they are currently the most effective method of disease defence.

The development of lifesaving vaccines can take years to develop, and even longer to effectively test them and gather data on them before they are safe for human application. Therefore, scientists and researchers are turning to a different and more controversial approach – purposefully infecting volunteers with potentially dangerous diseases, viruses and bacteria. This is more commonly known as the “human challenge trial”, which in turn has proved to be relatively successful over the last few decades. Notably the R21 vaccine which has proven to be “up to 80% effective in preventing malaria” which is one of the world’s “most severe health problems” with almost 608,000 deaths attributed to it in 2022. While there are still many unknowns associated with Challenge Trials including the long-term effects of participating in such trials, scientists believe that we will see more of these in the years to come, and with the right guardrails in place, they might prove to be the most effective vaccination development mechanism available.