The eradication of polio during the latter half of the 20th century can be considered one of the greatest medical triumphs in history. This achievement can be attributed to the development of vaccines that received the public's almost unwavering acceptance of them, especially by parents who had been waiting/hoping for a medical breakthrough that would ensure that their children would not succumb to the devastating effects of infantile paralysis. Sixty years later, the worldwide population was now confronted with an equally devastating disease — Covid-19 — which by the 2020–2021 time period had reached pandemic levels not seen since the flu outbreak of 1918. Unlike polio, however, several vaccines against Covid-19 were rapidly developed and deployed due to advances in microbiologic and immunologic technology. But also, unlike the polio vaccine experience, there was not universal acceptance of the Covid-19 vaccines and this has led to continuation of the pandemic into 2023 (albeit at a reduced level). In addition, acceptance of the Covid-19 vaccines has been confronted with the uncertainty that they do not apparently prevent transmission in asymptomatic people, and the mutation rate of the virus requires periodic re-evaluation and possible upgrading of the vaccines. This review will focus on the various factors that have led to these contrasting attitudes toward these two different vaccines and how resistance and hesitancy to vaccine use can be overcome by implementing various measures, after introducing the key roles that the sciences of microbiology and immunology have played in vaccine development over the past 250+ years.

20世纪下半叶消灭脊髓灰质炎可以被认为是历史上最伟大的医学成就之一。这一成就可以归功于疫苗的开发得到了公众几乎坚定不移的接受，尤其是那些一直在等待/希望医学突破能够确保他们的孩子不会死于小儿麻痹症破坏性影响的父母。六十年后，全世界人民现在面临着一种同样具有破坏性的疾病——Covid-19，到 2020 年至 2021 年期间，这种疾病已达到自 1918 年流感爆发以来从未见过的大流行水平。然而，与脊髓灰质炎不同的是，多种针对 Covid 的疫苗由于微生物学和免疫学技术的进步，-19 得到了迅速开发和部署。但与脊髓灰质炎疫苗的经验不同的是，Covid-19 疫苗并未得到普遍接受，这导致大流行持续到 2023 年（尽管水平有所下降）。此外，Covid-19疫苗的接受度面临着不确定性，即它们不能明显阻止无症状人群中的传播，而且病毒的突变率需要定期重新评估并可能升级疫苗。本综述将在介绍微生物学和免疫学所发挥的关键作用后，重点讨论导致对这两种不同疫苗持不同态度的各种因素，以及如何通过采取各种措施克服对疫苗使用的抵抗和犹豫。过去 250 多年里，我们一直致力于疫苗研发。