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INTRODUCTION

Hi! My name’s Alex and I’m a biochemist.

‘I’m a biochemist’ is a pretty short and succinct response to the inevitable occupation questions that come up within the first half minute of meeting somebody new.

It’s not just me that it happens to, as most of us end up talking about our work in social situations because people are naturally curious. That’s why the fireman is asked about running into burning houses and the dentist ends up fielding questions about that toothache that kind of comes and goes. We all wonder about the lives of others, especially when someone has an unusual kind of job.

It’s easy for me to forget just how unusual my job actually is, and I suspect that’s largely because I spend most of my time locked in the lab with other biochemists, along with some other assorted flavours of nerds. However, I’m reminded of the fact that I do have an unusual occupation when so many people ask me to tell them a little more about what I actually do with my day.

My pleasure, I’m glad you asked.

I’m a biochemist with a PhD in molecular immunology. When people ask me to translate that into English I explain that I do a lot of work with vaccines, both in academia and in the commercial sector. Now if it’s a good party and I’m feeling three glasses of wine grandiose (and my conversation partner hasn’t already fallen asleep), then I might expand my explanation still further to cover my specialist areas of antigen discovery, adjuvant research and process development. When I’m inevitably asked to translate that into English, I just explain that I spend my time trying to figure out exactly which components are essential for a vaccine to make it work. I also do a lot of research into figuring out whether there’s anything we can add to an existing vaccine to improve it, as well as helping to develop efficient, safe and cost-effective production techniques for the pharmaceutical sector.

The end result of all that fancy science-speak is that, in terms of vaccines at least, not only am I the guy who sees how the sausage gets made, I’m actually the guy who comes up with the recipe in the first place.

Yeah, that’s me, the vaccine sausage guy; although that’s not how it’s written on my business card.

Like I said, I have a pretty unusual job and people are often very interested when they realise they’re talking to a genuine, fully paid-up member of the bona fide expert club – at least when it comes to vaccines. Sausages, less so.

When I’m not drinking wine at parties or talking to other scientists about vaccines, I spend a lot of my time talking to doctors, students and members of the public about the same subject, so I guess that really makes me a kind of go-to guy when it comes to questions about vaccination.

That’s how you came to be reading this book.

A quick Internet search will immediately tell you that there are plenty of other books about vaccines available right now. There are lots of incredibly detailed academic works, professional journals and epidemiology studies – all outlining the case for using vaccines and providing the data to back it up. So much data …

However, there are precious few books written by insiders like me that aren’t three feet thick and crammed with unintelligible graphs, tables and footnotes that in many cases are even longer than the text itself.

There are no graphs in this book, just as there is no unnecessarily complex language and no soul-destroying swamps of appendices and references. Instead, this is just a plain English summary of the huge number of discussions I’ve enjoyed with folk from all walks of life about the subject of vaccination. You’ll be happy to hear that I favour the amusing and the informative rather than any preachy, finger-wagging medical lectures. Many people are concerned about the perceived efficiency, safety or even the morality of vaccine use, and although it’s not technically part of my job to answer those questions, I do have some special insight regarding these matters.

My conversations have happened in bars, restaurants, aeroplanes and even in elevators. To be honest, I really don’t know how many hundreds there have been over the years, but they can be boiled down to 10 basic objections to vaccination on various grounds. So if you’re worried, concerned or just want some reliable yet casual information about vaccines, this is probably the best place to find the answers you’re seeking.

It’s completely natural to have questions and doubts, especially with so much lurid and frankly wrong information hurtling around in cyberspace, but I’m here to just give you the facts in a straightforward manner that doesn’t need a science or statistics degree to interpret. I have no reason or desire to make anyone feel guilty, or to shove my point of view down anyone’s throat. My aim here is to provide a different, relaxed and yet well-informed perspective. If some readers experience a sudden ‘I never thought about it like that’ moment at the end of it all, then I’ll know I’ve done my job well.

Anyone can enjoy this book, including other professionals who may have a solid understanding of vaccines and the data surrounding them, but who struggle to communicate that knowledge to the vast majority of people who don’t have any training in epidemiology or immunology.

There aren’t that many of us professional vaccine immunologists around out there, and we can’t talk to everyone in person. This book is the next best thing to a face-to-face conversation with the guy who understands vaccines so well that he actually helps to cook up the ones we already have, as well as working to develop new ones for the future.

Let’s start the conversation.