One hundred, thirty-seven years ago this month, Louis Pasteur administered the first rabies vaccine and things haven’t been the same since. That wasn’t the first vaccine developed for an animal. That would have been the chicken cholera vaccine in 1879, also developed by Pasteur. But when he gave that first rabies vaccine five years later he was setting a course for protections from a then universally deadly disease in humans by inoculating the animal. Prevent the disease in the animal and the animal can’t transmit the disease to the human. And thus, today dogs are roaming the streets with rabies tags hanging from their collars indicating they bear no risk to their human companions other than perhaps smothering them with dog kisses. And all is right with the world.

Except it isn’t. Cats and dogs aren’t the only animals who can get rabies. Nor were there in the days of Pasteur’s experiments. Bat, rats, raccoons, even cattle can too. In fact, any mammal can carry and transmit rabies to any other mammal. Could then, can now. In 1885, a year after he developed it for animal use, Pasteur injected the rabies vaccine into nine year old Joseph Meister who had been mauled by a rabid dog. The boy survived the rabies infection, the first ever to do so.

Animal vaccines were new in the 1880s but they weren’t the first time animals had been used in the development of vaccines. That happened 90 years earlier when Edward Jenner injected cowpox into humans to prevent the closely related smallpox virus. Through subsequent studies and experiments, the lives saved from smallpox through vaccination was so significant that by the 1922, primary schools in the United States began requiring smallpox vaccination for admittance. Through the 1930s diphtheria, tetanus, anthrax, cholera, plague, typhoid, and tuberculosis vaccines were developed, and then by mid-century work was completed on vaccines for measles, mumps, and rubella. The latter half of the century brought vaccinations against chicken pox, pneumonia, and hepatitis B. This century saw the successful development of rotovirus, herpes zoster in adults (shingles), and human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccines. And don’t forget SARS-CoV2 aka CoViD-19.

We have been so fixated on COVID for the last 18 months we may have forgotten, or at least not actively considered, all the other vaccines and routine vaccination recommendations for children and adults. This was illustrated last month when this year’s influenza vaccine strains were selected with no notice by the mainstream media and little fanfare even in specialty media circles.

Although we may take a break from thinking of all the horrible things that can happen to us (besides being asked to wear masks, wash hands, and give others some space), viruses don’t take a break from causing potentially horrible things to happen. So, you should probably start worrying about a bad flu season for 2021-2022. It’s not that far away.

Part of the reason we might expect a bad flu season is because we’ve been pretty good with our CoViD mitigation. Masks, handwashing, and social distancing (which I still think should be called personal distancing because there’s nothing social about it), did a fabulous job of keeping influenza airborne rather than allowing it landing zones in our persons. Now those little fellows are mad as anything and will be twice a virulent this year. Well, okay, that would be a great story line for a book or a movie but, viruses aren’t all that vengeful in reality though sometimes it may seem they are.

I’ll give you two reasons why this year’s flu season may be back with a vengeance, and these reasons are valid for any viral infection. One is science based and the other is more social. Science tells us the body’s immune system actually thrives on small, short term exposures (which is why vaccines work) and that the lack of repeated exposure to the flu virus deprived the body of an additional weapon to augment the flu vaccine. The social reason that this year will see a more substantial flu season is that people, having had over a year’s worth of “isolation” will do what people often do and overdo. Without mandated masking and social distancing, people will try to make up for lost time in close social settings and forsake those mitigation practices that added up to making flu season 2020-2021 a non-event.

To reiterate, this covers all viruses. Last year also saw record low incidents of respiratory syncytial virus (RVS) and rotovirus in children, adenovirus and rhinovirus in everybody, and subsequently less non-COVID induced pneumonia.

I know, you are thinking, and possibly saying out loud to your screen, “But it’s too early to think about a flu shot!” You’re right. And I’ll remind you again in September and October to get out there and get your shot. But now is a good time to think about all those other vaccines we’ve spent a year not thinking about. Are you due for a tetanus booster? Did you put off your second shingles or pneumonia shot? Young adults, have you been evaluated for meningococcal vaccination; caregivers, do you need a new hepatitis titre and possible booster? Parents, what is the status of your children’s vaccine regimens? Travelers, are your shots all up to date?

There are so many more vaccines than COVID and now is the time to refresh yourself about them. For years we’ve relied on them to keep us safer and healthier than we were just a single generation ago. But vaccines only work if people are willing to be vaccinated. Go ahead, be willing. Joseph Meister did and lived to talk about it.

Links to US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention immunization schedules for 2021:

For adults age 19 and older
Table 1: By age
Table 2: By indication

For children and adolescents, birth to age 18
Table 1: By age
Table 2: Catch up schedule
Table 3: By indication
Parent Friendly easy-read chart

Resources
Information for adults
Information for parents