Jun 18, 2026 · 22 min · 14 segments
Dr. Adam Ratner joins host Dr. Edith Bracho-Sanchez to explore the fascinating history of vaccinations. They trace how the very first vaccine was developed to combat smallpox, the impact of the polio…
Adam RatnerGuest
Edith Bracho-SanchezHost[upbeat music] Today, I am joined again by Dr. Adam Ratner, who is a pediatrician and an infectious disease specialist and author of Booster Shots: The Urgent Lessons of Measles and the Uncertain Future of Children's Health.
I can't think of a better person to have a conversation with, and I thought we could start by going back.
Before vaccines existed, what was childhood actually like, Adam? I think many modern parents don't fully realize how common and devastating infectious diseases once were.
It really was a different world, and I think the most striking piece of that is just that death in childhood was much more common then.
And I would say, you know, just about every family either had lost a child or at least had known someone who lost a child early in childhood.
E- even if you look back only as far as the late 1800s, early 1900s, it was about one in five children who died before their fifth birthday, which thinking about that as a modern parent is, you know, it's almost unimaginable.
And we've made such tremendous progress since then, and a lot of that is due to vaccines.
[upbeat music] Today, I am joined again by Dr. Adam Ratner, who is a pediatrician and an infectious disease specialist and author of Booster Shots: The Urgent Lessons of Measles and the Uncertain Future of Children's Health.
I can't think of a better person to have a conversation with, and I thought we could start by going back.
Before vaccines existed, what was childhood actually like, Adam? I think many modern parents don't fully realize how common and devastating infectious diseases once were.
It really was a different world, and I think the most striking piece of that is just that death in childhood was much more common then.
And I would say, you know, just about every family either had lost a child or at least had known someone who lost a child early in childhood.
E- even if you look back only as far as the late 1800s, early 1900s, it was about one in five children who died before their fifth birthday, which thinking about that as a modern parent is, you know, it's almost unimaginable.
And we've made such tremendous progress since then, and a lot of that is due to vaccines.
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