Is it true that it is forbidden to vaccinate during an epidemic?

There is an opinion that vaccinating during an epidemic or pandemic is ineffective, or even dangerous. Its supporters pay attention to the fact that vaccination from influenza, for example, is carried out to a predictable outbreak of the disease, and there was never a situation in the history of medicine when vaccine prophylaxis began in the midst of the epidemic. We decided to check whether the arguments of the defenders of this position are true and whether vaccination is dangerous during the epidemic.

One of the first in the Russian -language space about the uselessness of vaccination during the epidemic was Nikolai Malyshev, the chief infectious disease specialist of Moscow, in 2013. Speaking about the vaccination from influenza, he reported: "In general, no vaccinations are in the midst of the epidemic." The current opponents of vaccination, carried out in the midst of the pandemic of coronavirus infection, also refer to those words. For example, Nadezhda Shabashova, teacher of the department of clinical mycology, allergology and immunology of the North-Western Medical University named after I. I. Mechnikov, speaks: "Doctors should know that it is impossible to instill people during the epidemic and even more than pandemia." A similar opinion at the end of 2020 also expressed* Lev Averbakh, head physician of private ambulance “Coris”: “To vaccinate (conduct vaccination) in the midst of an epidemic of the disease against which they are vaccinated, a big mistake. These are the basics of epidemiology and infectious diseases. ” Not only doctors are expressed on the topic of inadmissibility of vaccination during the epidemic, but also Journalists, users of social networks And messengers. 

Vaccination is preventive (a person is healthy, the goal is to develop immunity and prevent infection in the future) and therapeutic (a person is already sick, the vaccine is able to facilitate or stop the course of the disease). Preventive vaccination includes measles, rubella, diphtheria, tetanus, etc. herpes I and II type I and II in the development process vaccines for the treatment of viral hepatitis, HIV, HPV and tuberculosis, as well as some oncological diseases. Preventive vaccination, in turn, is divided into planned and emergency. Planned is carried out within the time provided by the national calendar preventive vaccinations, and emergency - according to indications.

Emergency vaccination includes vaccination against tetanus for vaccinated and unvaccinated with injuries, injuries, burns, frostbite, bites and abortions and childbirth outside medical institutions, vaccination against rabies with animal bites, against tick -borne encephalitisWhen the standard vaccination periods are missed. The list of diseases in respect of which emergency vaccination is also acceptable, can also be Included Viral hepatitis A, shigelles, typhoid, meningococcal, pneumococcal, rotavirus infection, chickenpox, measles, diphtheria, viral hepatitis B, pertussis, rubella, siberian ulcer, dysentery, tularemia. In the case of these diseases, even after an infectious agent enters the body, vaccination or prevents the development of the disease, or allows you to transfer it to a lighter form. Already from this we can conclude that vaccination is acceptable and effective even after contact with the sick. However, this is not about the vaccination of healthy during the pandemic and/or epidemic.

At the same time, the history of medicine knows many examples when vaccination was carried out precisely during the epidemic and was effective. One of the oldest examples - Varilation, and later vaccination, against smallpox in the Russian Empire, begun and occurred right in the midst of the epidemic itself. Preventive vaccinations for children and adults allowed to reduce the number of victims, slowed down the transmission of infection from patients to healthy and made it possible stop epidemic.

Since the beginning of the 20th century, a polio epidemic was raging in the United States. The disease was mainly affected by children, many of which turned out fully or partially paralyzed, and among adults and adolescents mortality I reached up to 30%. One of the worst consequences of the disease was paralysis of the respiratory muscles, forced to constantly or almost constantly be in the first time used for these purposes in 1952 apparatus - "Iron lungs." For example, Dianne Odell, who had three years old, Spent Inside the apparatus is 58 years old almost without interruptions, until she died due to the fact that during the disconnection of electricity the “light” stopped working.

In 1952 polio Sick 57,628 people, of which paralysis defeated 21,269, and died 3145. And in 1954, the Swalka vaccine was released in mass experimental use. In the first year, 1.5 million children were instilled. As a result of an active vaccination campaign in ten years, the incidence Falled up to 910 people per year (that is, 63 times), and in 20 - up to 31 annual cases (that is, 1569 times).

Relatively recently, in 2014, in West Africa was registered A flash of Ebola hemorrhagic fever. Scientists straightaway several countries began to develop a vaccine, and after obtaining permission to its Application - do vaccinations local population. In 2015, announced About the end of the epidemic.

As can be seen from the history of medicine, vaccination in the midst of an infectious disease has been carried out more than once and always led to a significant improvement in the epidemiological situation. The same approach is applicable in the case of vaccination and against coronavirus infection, and with vaccination against other infections against the background of pandemic. Position WHO, Central Committee And Ministry of Health Similar: despite the pandemic, vaccination against other diseases is necessary, including against pneumococcus and whooping cough for vulnerable population groups, as well as against influenza. Vaccination against coronavirus conducted during the pandemic, Specialists They think The main remedy for Victory Above the disease.

Thus, the height of coronavirus pandemia is not only not the basis for passing preventive vaccinations, but also a reason to refuse vaccination against coronaviral infection, because, as history shows, this is the most effective way to put an end to the spread of the infection.

*Later he Changed your opinion

Not true

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. Is it true that it is safe to vaccinate with existing antibodies after a disease?
2. Is it true that orphanage in the Russian Empire created an rations to vaccinate smallpox?
3. Mikhail Shifrin. 100 stories from the history of medicine. The greatest discoveries, exploits and crimes in the name of your health and longevity