Investment in Scientific Research
Pandemics have spurred scientific investigation into the causes of water-borne, air-borne, and vector-borne diseases. This has led to the development of vaccines to prevent them, particularly after the advent of ‘germ theory,’ pioneered by Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch. Edward Jenner, the founder of vaccinology, developed the smallpox vaccine in 1796. Subsequent vaccines include rabies (1885), plague (1897), diphtheria (1923), pertussis (1926), tuberculosis (1927), tetanus (1927), yellow fever (1935), polio (1955 and 1962), measles (1964), mumps (1967), rubella (1970), and hepatitis B (1981). Covid-19 has also led to the development of multiple vaccines. After a successful vaccination drive against smallpox, immunization programs by governments have vaccinated 80 percent of the world’s children against 6 major diseases: tuberculosis, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, measles, and polio. Public health institutions, especially municipalities, played a key role in circumventing vaccine resistance and organizing mass vaccination drives.
Pandemics also led to advancement in vital statistics, including measures to track the infectiousness of a disease, e.g., R0 or ‘R-naught’ that estimates the number of susceptible people each affected person is likely to infect on average. Further, they facilitated new ways of community management of contagious diseases: mandatory face masks, social distancing, lockdown, contact tracing, testing, isolation, quarantine, and, more recently, work from home, online schooling, remote shopping, and contactless service delivery. The practice of quarantine originated in the fourteenth century to protect coastal cities from plague. Port authorities in Venice required ships arriving from infected ports to wait at the anchor for 40 days before landing. A social movement was catalyzed by scientific knowledge of the sources of contagion and socioeconomic determinants of health. This led to ‘the great sanitary awakening.’