Session 5
Ambassador of Strings & Wings
Vaccines were first developed—at least in a rudimentary way—in the 1700s, when people used cow pox to build immunity to smallpox. Then, in the 1800s, Louis Pasteur found a way to create vaccines in the lab, and the modern age of vaccines had begun.
In the 1950’s, Jonas Salk created a vaccine for polio using killed versions of the polio virus itself. In 1957, two years after a mass immunization campaign, polio cases in the United States dropped from 57,628 in 1952 to about 5,600 and according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates, in 1952, 3,145 Americans died as a result of polio. Since 1996, that number has been zero. In 1958, 763,094 people in the United States contracted measles, and 552 died. In 2015, there were 188 measles cases and one death.
“Vaccines are safe, and they save the lives of children and adults every day,” said Carrie L. Byington, MD, dean of the Texas A&M College of Medicine, senior vice president of the Texas A&M University Health Science Center and vice chancellor for health services at The Texas A&M University System. “The science of vaccines is sound, and their safety is established.”
In the 1950’s, Jonas Salk created a vaccine for polio using killed versions of the polio virus itself. In 1957, two years after a mass immunization campaign, polio cases in the United States dropped from 57,628 in 1952 to about 5,600 and according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates, in 1952, 3,145 Americans died as a result of polio. Since 1996, that number has been zero. In 1958, 763,094 people in the United States contracted measles, and 552 died. In 2015, there were 188 measles cases and one death.
“Vaccines are safe, and they save the lives of children and adults every day,” said Carrie L. Byington, MD, dean of the Texas A&M College of Medicine, senior vice president of the Texas A&M University Health Science Center and vice chancellor for health services at The Texas A&M University System. “The science of vaccines is sound, and their safety is established.”

