Thomas Lew, MD, ABIM, Molly O’Shea, MD, FAAP, and Jesse Goodman, MD, MPH, discuss vaccine policy changes and their impact on measles outbreaks.
Feature|Articles|August 3, 2026
A Brief History of Vaccines: Smallpox, Polio, and Beyond
Author(s)Ashley Gallagher, MA
Centuries of vaccine science saved more lives than any other intervention, and pharmacists matter now more than ever.
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For centuries, people have searched for ways to protect one another from deadly infectious disease. What began with risky, informal experiments against smallpox eventually grew into a scientific discipline responsible for saving more human lives than any other medical intervention in history.1
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