Why its smart to be a "max vaxxer".

Vaccines get a bad rap on social media but what if they confer indirect benefits across our lifespans, making us healthier and preserving cognitive function for longer?

Browsing social media you could be forgiven for thinking that vaccines are the root of all evil. These days vaccines are blamed for everything from the increase in autism to the incidence of rare neurological conditions, such as Guillain-Barré Syndrome, to passive compliance with illiberal measures (think the Covid lockdowns and mask mandates). But perhaps the most pernicious idea is that vaccines “overload” our immune systems, especially if combined in a single shot, such as the Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR) jab.

But what if the opposite is true? What if instead of damaging our immune systems, vaccines increase our chances of living long and healthy lives free from debilitating diseases and conditions associated with senescence? That is the surprising conclusion of several studies looking at the indirect benefits of vaccination.

Perhaps the best example is the Bacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG) vaccine. First introduced in the UK in 1952, BCG is an effective prophylactic against tuberculosis, reducing the risk of the bacterial disease by half. Less well known is that BCG also provides protection against neonatal sepsis and a range of respiratory tract infections and can be used to treat bladder cancer and genital warts.

Or take the shingles vaccine. A retrospective study of more than 300,000 elderly people in Wales found that as well as reducing the chances of developing shingles, the Zostavax vaccine was associated with a 20 percent reduction in dementia (the study was based on a natural experiment in which researchers compared the health records of 80-year-olds who qualified for the roll-out of the vaccine in Wales on September 1, 2013, and those who were born earlier and therefore missed out on immunisation).

A blistering skin eruption caused by reactivation of the varicella-zoster virus. Courtesy: Wellcome Images.

As dementia affects more than 55 million people worldwide, with an estimated 10 million new cases per annum, that means that in theory two million cases of dementia could be avoided each year by getting the shingles jab. It’s also far more cost effective than treating the painful rash and fluid-filled blisters that result from the reactivation of the varicella-zoster virus (for older patients, treatment in England averages £445 per case as opposed to £230 per vaccine dose).

As a late Boomer, I avoided most of the diseases that afflicted my parents’ generation. In 1957, three years before I was born, the NHS introduced the pertussis vaccine, which prevents whooping cough, into the child immunisation schedule, alongside the diphtheria vaccine. This was followed in 1961 by the tetanus vaccine and in 1962 by the live oral polio vaccine (no jab was required as it came in the form of a sugar cube). I can’t remember exactly when I received the BCG vaccine – most likely at primary school - but I still bear the raised circular scar on my left shoulder resulting from the blister that developed a few weeks later.