Quote of interest:
"By comparison with the ephemeral effects of antiserum, the protection afforded by vaccination is relatively long-lived. The chief disadvantage of all methods of producing active immunity is the comparatively long time they require to lead to results. While the long incubation period of rabies permits the adoption of such procedure, in acute diseases such as poliomyelitis it is useless to think of vaccination when the patient or animal is already infected. It must be carried out beforehand in anticipation of the coming epidemic. And this means that in the case of a disease like poliomyelitis, which in this country [England] relatively seldom causes serious epidemics, it is very improbable that public opinion will ever be educated to the point of wholesale vaccination. But looking to the future and speaking quite generally, one would be inclined to forecast that in both human and animal medicine vaccination will ultimately prove of greater value than serum therapy."
Citation: Hurst, E. W. The Neurotropic Virus Diseases. The Lancet 226, 758–762 (1935).
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