Vaccines in England explained

Vaccines are one of the most important health interventions that we have. The World Health Organization (WHO) describes vaccines as the second most effective public health intervention after clean water, estimated to have saved billions of lives. But what are vaccines, what do they do and how many people are vaccinated in England?

Vaccination has transformed public health, preventing millions of deaths and bringing some diseases to the brink of eradication. But this success can make it easy to forget how serious those diseases once were and that many still have the potential to cause severe illness, disability and death when vaccination coverage falls.

Before vaccinations were developed, smallpox, for example, accounted for 10–20% of all deaths in Britain in the 17th century and caused around 300 million deaths worldwide in the 20th century. Many survivors were left with severe scarring, blindness or other lifelong complications. Similarly, polio was one of the most feared childhood diseases, capable of causing sudden paralysis and, in severe cases, affecting the muscles needed to breathe. Alongside improvements in sanitation, nutrition and living conditions, vaccination fundamentally changed this picture.

This explainer covers vaccines, from how they were invented to how they are used today.