How vaccines changed the world and the public health challenges that persist Health Sep 7, 2025 6:12 PM EDT

This article is republished from the Council on Foreign Relations. Read the original article here .

Vaccination campaigns are widely considered to be a public health success story. Since Edward Jenner pioneered the smallpox vaccine in the 1700s, they’ve significantly reduced disease rates around the world and are credited with saving millions of lives — primarily in low- and middle-income countries.

In the years following the COVID-19 pandemic, there’s been a rise in vaccine naysayers and a consequential uptick in disease outbreaks; misinformation about side effects is a root cause, experts say. Even in countries with low communicable disease rates, illnesses are getting hard

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