Vaccines

It is courage based on confidence, not daring, and it is confidence based on experience. ~ Jonas Salk

Vaccines are biological preparations that provides active acquired immunity to a particular disease. A vaccine typically contains an agent that resembles a disease-causing microorganism and is often made from weakened or killed forms of the microbe, its toxins, or one of its surface proteins. The agent stimulates the body's immune system to recognize the agent as a threat, destroy it, and to further recognize and destroy any of the microorganisms associated with that agent that it may encounter in the future. In the 2000s, vaccine misinformation developed, with opponents of vaccination spreading false claims through various media.

Quotes

• Edward R. Murrow: Who owns the patent on this vaccine?
  Jonas Salk: Well, the people, I would say. There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?
  • CBS Television interview, on See It Now (12 April 1955); quoted in Shots in the Dark: The Wayward Search for an AIDS Vaccine (2001) by Jon Cohen

• It is courage based on confidence, not daring, and it is confidence based on experience.
  • Jonas Salk, on testing his vaccine against polio on himself, his wife, and his three sons (9 May 1955)

• Vaccines not only protect individual children from measles, but also contribute to community immunity, protecting those who are unable to be vaccinated due to medical reasons.
  • Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR.: Measles outbreak is call to action for all of us", Fox News (March 2, 2025)

• Look, you have some vaccines that are so amazing, the polio vaccine I happen to think is amazing. A lot of people think that Covid is amazing. You know there are many people that believe strongly in that. But you have some vaccines that are so incredible, and I think you have to be very careful when you say that some people don't have to be vaccinated. It's a very, you know, it's a very tough position, so I'll give you an answer. I'll give you the feeling, but just initially I heard about it yesterday and it's a tough stance. Look, you have vaccines that work. They just pure and simple work. They're not controversial at all, and I think those vaccine should be used. Otherwise some people are going to catch it and they endanger other people, and when you don’t have controversy at all, I think people should take it.
  • Donald Trump, responding to the proposed removal of vaccination mandates in Florida. "Florida vaccine mandate rollback falters after Trump criticism", The Guardian (September 8, 2025)

See also

• COVID-19 vaccine
• Health
• Health care
• Immune system
• Influenza vaccine
• Medicine
• Pharmaceutical industry
• Plague
• Use of fetal tissue in vaccine development
• Vaccine misinformation
• Virus