I don’t think there could be a doctor who is more pro-vaccine than I am. As a keen reader of history, I know all too well the scourge of infectious diseases as they have ravaged mankind and brought down entire civilisations.

If you chart a graph of life expectancy throughout the course of human existence, it has averaged a dismal 20-40 years in most countries — until only just over one century ago.

The simplest of infections could kill you, and the three biggest contributors to the rapid growth of life expectancy in the last 100 years have been public sanitation, antibiotics — and yes, vaccines.

Imagine a society where we were still afflicted with diseases like measles, pertussis, polio and tetanus — to name but a few.