What is the role of vaccines in the COVID pandemic?

Experts believe that vaccines will play a major role in ending the pandemic, just as they helped fight smallpox and polio. Smallpox is a disease that killed about a third of those who got it; polio can kill, paralyze or cripple its victims. But these two terrible diseases have been entirely (in the case of smallpox) or nearly (for polio) eliminated from the world through widespread vaccination. Our hope is that vaccination against COVID will protect those who receive the shot from getting sick, and that over the coming months, everyone will get vaccinated and be protected.