Preventing infectious disease has long been a hallmark of research at NYU Langone. Graduates and researchers include many who helped develop vaccines, including Hermann Biggs and William Hallock Park (diphtheria), Thomas Francis (influenza), Albert Sabin and Jonas Salk (polio), Saul Krugman (hepatitis), Robert Austrian (pneumococcus), and Ruth and Victor Nussenzweig (malaria).

In recent years, a wide range of domestic and global developments spotlighted the important public health implications of vaccine policy. The COVID-19 pandemic has led to nearly 7 million deaths worldwide to date. Although lack of resources and access are of course partly responsible, in high-resource countries like the United States, which saw more than 1 million deaths, vaccine hesitancy and misinformation and disinformation, especially on social media, also played a huge role. Before that, a large, multistate outbreak of measles originating in Disneyland, California, sickened 147 people, a 30 percent worldwide increase in measles that the World Health Organization has attributed in part to anti-vaccine sentiment. Controversy over a new dengue vaccine resulted in a suspension of the vaccine’s use in the Philippines; and wide distrust of other vaccines.

Meanwhile, a new Ebola vaccine showed promise in ring vaccination trials, and in Australia, a government vaccination program led to a 77 percent reduction in the types of human papilloma virus (HPV) most responsible for cervical cancer.

These stories represent only a sample of recent major vaccine success stories as well as troubling vaccination trends. Through the Vaccine Ethics Project, researchers in the Division of Medical Ethics continue to examine these developments from scientific, cultural, historical, and ethical perspectives in an effort to improve public policy and understanding of vaccines. In addition to the areas mentioned, members are also consulting with industry and government on the deployment of novel vaccines to prevent COVID, Ebola, HIV, cholera, and more and on how to prepare for the next outbreaks.

Division members also work on the Give One Talk vaccine information project, training medical students to counter vaccine misinformation by providing scientific information. Through the Project on Polio Eradication, Ethics, and Policy, project members examine the Global Polio Eradication Initiative campaign to help shape the next stages of polio eradication policy.