Critical Thinking Extra Credit

 Critical Thinking Extra Credit: Five Surprising Moments in Vaccine History 

The article published by The Washington Post, and authored by Anna Rothschild is about the development of vaccines and their history. Anna Rothschild is an on-air journalist that covers science and health, which is supported by her BA in biology from Brown University and her MA in journalism from New York University. This article in particular is quite short as it only includes a very high-level overview of vaccines, but the main focus is the 3 short videos as part of a series. I ended up watching all 3 videos to gain more context about the history of vaccines.

  
In her article, the author Anna Rothschild traces the history of vaccines back to their primitive but ingenious beginnings with variolation, which is a precursory form of inoculation against smallpox. Rothschild then introduces Onesimus, who was an enslaved man that played a crucial role in bringing variolation to the US (or the American colonies at that time). The article then transitions from these early methods to the development of the first true vaccine for smallpox in the late 1700s. But what's interesting to note is the public’s initial skepticism of vaccines is traced back to a lack of understanding of germ theory. This is not related to this article, but it reminded me of the quote from Batman Begins "you always fear what they you don't understand" - Carmine Falcone. 

In video 1 Rothschild interviews Alexandra Lord, who is the Chair of Medicine and Science of the National Museum of American History who tells the history of Smallpox. This was then followed by the introduction of variolation that helped to make anyone immune to smallpox and this was seen as a traditional cure in Asia and Africa. Rothschild then talks about how our bodies fight a virus which helps to understand why variolation worked and why it was used. We learn that Onesimus was an African slave who brough variolation to the US and George Washington helped to make it more mainstream. It was interesting to also learn that in the 19th century there were protests to vaccinations as people thought it was going against the wishes of God. But for the most part people trusted the vaccine as they saw the evident of what smallpox was doing, they believed, but when smallpox rates reduced, the that's when the vaccine mistrust rose. 

In video 2 Rothschild goes through how vaccinees are made and what are the ingredients in it. In this video we took a look back at one of. the first lab-created vaccinations that had prevented the childhood illness known as diphtheria. Similar to video 1, Rothschild is interviewing an expert here as well, in this case being Diane Wendt who is a curator of Medicine and Science at the National Museum of American History. Prior to the vaccine doctors used to put holes in the children's throat to tackle the disease. Moreover, I learned that there is aluminum in vaccines, which I did not know prior to watching this video and it's also in other products that we consume such as antacids. At the end of the video, I learned about a new type of technique to make vaccines which doesn't include germs is called nanoparticle technology, which can be used for dangerous viruses such as Ebola and COVID-19. 

In video 3 Rothschild discusses how, vaccines are tested for safety, why kids get so many shots at once and whether or not the long-term effects are being studied or not. Similar to the other two videos, in this series video Rothschild goes ahead an interview someone, but this someone has now become particularly famous, I'm of course talking about Dr. Anthony Fauci, who at the time of the release of this article was the Director of the national Insititute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIH. Dr. Fauci then breaks down the process of how a vaccinee is tested including the different stages to ensure its effectiveness. And that vaccinee testing is much more different than a regular drug testing, it's not the same as many people would believe. 

This article is not only informative but also profoundly engaging, it reminded me of the human aspects behind scientific advancements. The narrative that Rothschild constructed has anecdotes and historical insights that reveal the challenges and triumphs faced by scientists in vaccine development. The use of critical thinking is evident as she dissects the complexities of public health responses and vaccine skepticism, and the video series helped immensely. This is true in particular as I am someone who struggles to read long articles, but this animated series, held together my attention and by having experts interviewed I knew I could trust what Rothschild was reporting. The main takeaways from Washington Post article are the importance of understanding the historical context of medical innovations and the continuous need for public education to combat skepticism. Particularly having gone through a pandemic such as COVID-19 and the skepticism of vaccinees being at an all-time high with some people believing they are being injecting with chips to be tracked by Bill Gates, so I am very glad to have read this article and watch all 3 videos as I learned something I've always been curious about!