Vaccines: How they work and some common misconceptions

There is likely no bigger accomplishment in medicine and public health that has saved so many lives and prevented so much misery over the decades as the introduction of vaccines. In the U.S. alone, between 1963 and 2015 nearly 200 million cases of polio, measles, mumps, rubella, varicella, adenovirus, rabies and hepatitis A — and approximately 450,000 deaths from these diseases — were prevented by vaccination, researchers estimate. Public health physician and a vaccinologist, Melvin Sanicas, MD joined me to discuss several topics on vaccines to include how they are made, how they work and a look at several misconceptions. Dr. Sanica's professional experience spans the globe and for the past 10 years he has been involved in different stages of drug and vaccine development and research in Asia Pacific, US, Africa, and Europe. He was a Global Health Fellow at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. a fellow of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and a fellow of the Royal Society for Public Health.