Vaccines and Vaccination: Historical Perspectives, Current Issues and Emerging/Evolving Themes

Dear Colleagues,

Vaccines, along with small-molecule antibiotics, are arguably the greatest medical accomplishments in human history and are indispensable therapeutic tools that are firmly embedded in modern healthcare systems and public health globally. Vaccines, in particular against bacterial or viral pathogens, are principally used as prophylactic measures and have saved hundreds of millions of lives since the start of vaccination campaigns worldwide, assisting humankind to contain many human and animal infectious diseases, and have even allowed the eradication of polio and rinderpest viruses completely.

The development of vaccines and implementation of widespread vaccination programs have historically had a long and arduous journey spanning many centuries, but recently, vaccine discovery has become a rapidly evolving field. Historically, there have been many roadblocks and mishaps with vaccine development and vaccination implementation programs that have affected public opinion regarding the efficacy and safety of vaccines and the necessity of vaccination programs, which have hindered their timely development and reduced the capacity for their full potential to be realised. Many external factors has also affected vaccine discovery and vaccination, including political decisions that did not follow science-based recommendations, various accidents that occurred during vaccine manufacturing, various (un)ethical practices during some of the first human vaccine trials, unwarranted and unproductive rivalry between scientists, hasty decisions made on the emergence of new viral strains, and many other decisions that have negatively influenced public opinion over many decades. For example, many early experiments or initial human trials as well as some actions of scientists who held strong opinions for or against new developments in the 19^th and early 20^th century were unethical or unacceptable in light of modern day norms or ethical standards. Nevertheless, these historical actions and experiences greatly shaped current thinking and policies on vaccines and vaccination globally. Such incidents are too numerous to list in detail here, but an example is the Cutter Laboratory incident in the US during the early days of Salk’s polio vaccine campaign, where some vaccine lots contained live polio virus. This somewhat influenced public perspectives on polio vaccines and the polio vaccination initiative. When looked at critically and objectively, however, the rich and thought-provoking history of vaccines and vaccination programs have paved the way for future vaccine developments and have greatly informed decision-making processes for future infectious disease events and the public health response to these. This is particularly important now, as we are still in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and are still navigating this public health crisis.

In this Special Issue (SI) of Vaccines, we invite our academic and research colleagues to join us in submitting research papers and reviews on historical perspectives on human and animal infectious diseases and vaccine discovery and vaccination programs, the current issues facing vaccines for bacterial and viral diseases, vaccine discovery platforms and policy and regulatory frameworks in the field of vaccines and vaccination as a key public health initiative nationally and internationally, especially during large-scale pandemics such as the current COVID-19 pandemic and seasonal influenza outbreaks. In addition, the rapidly emerging and evolving issues related to vaccine discovery and development, such as the rapidly shifting discovery platforms that are being (and will continue to be) introduced as well as the ability of national governments and international health agencies to embed vaccination policy and of regulatory platforms to align with rapidly evolving pandemics and viral mutations. Issues of vaccine affordability and the ethical considerations that underpin such universal access to citizens of all nations regardless of their socioeconomic status will also be included. The use of simulation and modelling strategies to track and predict the time-course of infections and viral mutations during a pandemic will also be considered. Greater adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) to assist in rational design of future vaccines during pandemics will also be included in this SI. Finally, development of future efficacy and safety surveillance programs to provide real-time measurements of such signals in the face of exponential changes to the structure of the virus will also be the subject of this SI of Vaccines.

We hope that the topics included in this SI will be of interest not only to those working directly in the field of medicine and therapeutics, vaccine, vaccination, and immunology, but also to those academics, researchers and scientists in public health, and social science and public policy and national and international bureaucrats and technocrats, who are in positions to influence government and institutional/organizational policy on vaccines and vaccination programs at national and international levels.

Dr. Veysel Kayser
Prof. Dr. Iqbal M. Ramzan
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Vaccines is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• artificial Intelligence and Vaccine Discovery
• COVID-19 pandemic
• effect of infectious diseases in early colonialism in Latin America, Africa and Australia
• emerging infectious diseases and pandemics
• eradication of smallpox and rinderpest
• history of animal vaccines and vaccination
• history of human vaccines
• history of infectious diseases
• human and animal pathogens
• infectious diseases and colonialism
• infectious diseases—bacterial and viral
• influenza
• measles
• national/international vaccine/vaccination policy and regulatory frameworks
• novel discovery platforms
• polio
• seasonal influenza outbreaks and yearly vaccinations
• simulation and modelling to track progress of pandemics
• traditional vaccine discovery platforms
• universal access to vaccines—monetary and economic policy
• vaccination as a key public health measure
• vaccine discovery platforms
• vaccine efficacy and safety signal monitoring
• vaccine hesitancy and initiatives to minimize reluctance to fully participate
• vaccines
• vaccinology