Synopsis

The World Health Organization’s declaration on March 11th, 2020, that the novel coronavirus had become a global pandemic, served as a stark reminder of humanity's enduring vulnerability to disease. To understand the present, it is useful to consider some of history’s most devastating plagues, alongside the scientific progress made in confronting them – a progress exemplified by Edward Jenner’s vaccine against smallpox, developed in the 1790s. This vaccine represented a pivotal advance in modern