Why We Need Vaccines: How Humans Beat Infectious Diseases

Why We Need Vaccines: How Humans Beat Infectious Diseases is exactly what the title indicates it is - a well-written, well-organized book written to explain the role of vaccines in defeating infectious diseases.

All students in our schools today have had their lives disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Although they may not have had any knowledge of previous infectious disease epidemics, such as polio, they have experienced having their schools closed, playgrounds cordoned off, and sports and other social activities suspended due to COVID-19. Many students have some understanding of why they received a COVID-19 vaccination, or why they did not. Why We Need Vaccines: How Humans Beat Infectious Diseases is for all students, vaccinated or not, who have questions about vaccinations.

Why We Need Vaccines is divided into 10 chapters examining the earliest identification of diseases, the development of vaccines as treatment and protection, how vaccines work, some reasons for vaccine hesitancy, and the responsibility of all individuals to others.

The information in each chapter is organized chronologically. The chapter title introductory page includes a pictorial timeline highlighting key events pertaining to the focus of that chapter.
For example, the introductory page of “Chapter Two Curiosity: When People Look for Answers”, includes these highlights.

1665 Robert Hooke, Micrographia

1683 Antony van Leewenhoek, simple microscopes

1858 The Great Stink, London

1860 Louis Pasteur, pasteurization

1900 Mary Mallon, “Typhoid Mary”

2000s New techniques are discovered for studying DNA

Chapters are subdivided into relevant time periods for each chapter topic. Chapter Two is divided into four subsections: “1590s-1680s Seeing the Tiny, 1860s-1870s Making Connections, 2000s-Today, Studying Microbes, Future: On the Lookout”. Although the time periods vary, each chapter includes a “Future” subdivision.

Also included is a multi-page glossary and a list of print, on-line, and app resources. Because this review is based on an advance reading copy, the index is incomplete but will be included in the final print version of the book.

A very valuable addition to the book is the “On The Job” career highlights, including vaccine research technician (Saskatchewan), medical historian medical ethicist (Maryland), graduate student and co-founder of Frontline Immunity (Ontario), pediatric infectious disease specialist and vaccinologist (Connecticut), clinical and research pharmacist (Ontario), community health nurse (Yukon), international health epidemiologist (Quebec), medical director (Ontario), clinical trial manager (Quebec), high school student and volunteer with Frontline Immunity (Ontario), and information systems researcher (Michigan). This is exactly the kind of relevant information that may motivate some readers to consider pursuing a career in science.

Author Rowena Rae and illustrator Paige Stampatori have combined to create an informative book that will engage young readers and possibly even inspire a next generation of medical researchers and practitioners. Everyone who reads will be better informed about an important topic of our times.

I highly recommend Why We Need Vaccines: How Humans Beat Infectious Diseases, part of the” Orca Timeline” series, to inform and stimulate thoughtful conversations about vaccines in the past, the present, and the future. One word of caution, some of the text is very small, unnecessarily small in my opinion.