Most people likely think that working to getting everyone vaccinated and protected against COVID-19 has to be the most ambitious mass immunization campaign in history?
“Mass immunization is a term used in diverse ways in the medical literature. The most frequent use of the term, and the definition adopted here, is delivering immunizations to a large number of people at one or more locations in a short interval of time. A common understanding is that mass immunization campaigns involve more people passing through the immunization process than is the usual baseline rate.”
Mass immunization programs: principles and standards
Are they right?
What Were the Biggest Vaccine Campaigns in History?
Well, let’s take a look at some other mass immunization campaigns in history.

Among the biggest and most massive vaccine campaigns in history (that I have so far been able to find…) have been the:
- Global Polio Eradication Initiative – as we work towards eradication, understand that in just the past ten years, more than 10 billion doses of polio vaccine have been given to nearly three billion children worldwide.
- yearly seasonal flu campaigns – in the last few years, over 170 million Americans of all ages have been getting vaccinated between about September and March or April – each year
- meningococcal A conjugate vaccine campaign in Burkina Faso in 2010 – 11,117,555 children and young adults were vaccinated in 9 days
- 1994-95 diphtheria mass immunization program in the countries of the former Soviet Union – more than 140,000,000 adults and adolescents, and children were vaccinated to control a diphtheria epidemic
- mass administration of the meningococcal serogroup A vaccine in Brazil in 1973-74 – about 100 million doses of vaccine were distributed to control an meningococcal disease epidemic
- 2009 H1N1 flu vaccine campaign – low-yielding vaccine virus strain and new production line glitches led to delays and lowered goals, but in the end, more than 75 million Americans were vaccinated between October 2009 and February 2010
- 1976 Swine Flu Vaccination Program – 45 million people were vaccinated in 10 weeks
- 1947 smallpox campaign in New York City – 5 million people were vaccinated in about two months
- following a smallpox outbreak in 1963 – 2,176,947 people were vaccinated in the Wrocław province on Poland in two months
- Sabin polio vaccination campaigns – started in 1960 with Sabin Sundays, with millions of families lining up to get vaccinated and protected against polio
- Madagascar 2018-2019 measles outbreak response – 7,265,990 children aged from 6 months to 9 years were vaccinated in three round of measles mass campaigns in January, March and April 2019
- first national measles eradication campaign in 1967 – about 11.7 million doses of measles vaccine were distributed in the US over the next few years
- Salk polio vaccination campaign in 1955 – only 9 million shots were initially available
- initial rubella vaccination campaign – an estimated 80 million doses of live, attenuated rubella virus vaccines were distributed and given to children between age 1 to 14 years in the US between 1969 and 1977
- International Tuberculosis Campaign – nearly 30 million people underwent tuberculin testing and almost 14 million were given BCG (bacille Calmette-Guérin) vaccine between 1948 and 1951 in 23 countries
- mass administration of the meningococcal serogroup A vaccine to the entire population of Finland in 1973 – about 4 million people
- Polio Pioneers – was described as “the largest clinical trial in history,” involving 1.3 million children in elementary school, grades 1 to 3, in 1954.
- The Australian Measles Control Campaign of 1998 – 1.7 million doses of MMR vaccine administered during the campaign children aged 5–12 years
- 2003 mass customized smallpox immunization – 450,293 smallpox vaccinations given to US service members in just over 5 months
- Global Smallpox Eradication Program in 1967 – not really a mass vaccination program, instead, monitored for cases of smallpox and then sent out teams to vaccinate everyone in the area, with many teams vaccinating up to 500 people each day
- National Childhood Immunization Initiative in 1977 – increased childhood vaccination rates from 70% to over 90% in three years.
- National Childhood Immunization Initiative in 1993 – after the deadly measles outbreaks in the late 1980s, once again worked to increase childhood vaccination coverage levels towards 90%
- mass administration of tetanus vaccine to American military forces in 1941
- mass administration of typhoid vaccine to American military forces during WWI and WWII
So where does the COVID-19 vaccination campaign rank with these and other vaccine campaigns in history?

Well, the plan is to eventually get everyone vaccinated and protected, even those who have already been sick, so would indeed end up as the biggest vaccine campaign in history.
“The goal of the U.S. government is to have enough COVID-19 vaccine for all people in the United States who wish to be vaccinated.”
COVID-19 Vaccination Planning and Partnerships
But, the COVID-19 vaccination plan is being done in phases and might take years to complete…
Still, to reach our initial goals, we will need continue vaccinating one millions of people each and every day in the United States, which is something we have been doing, even as many countries have gotten few doses so far.

We will meet those challenges and get everyone vaccinated and protected though.
“…we now face the real danger that even as vaccines bring hope to some, they become another brick in the wall of inequality between the world’s haves and have-nots.
It’s right that all governments want to prioritize vaccinating their own health workers and older people first.
But it’s not right that younger, healthier adults in rich countries are vaccinated before health workers and older people in poorer countries.”
WHO Director-General’s opening remarks at 148th session of the Executive Board
Hopefully putting a priority on those who are at the most risk all over the world, not just in developed countries, will help to truly make COVID-19 the most ambitious mass vaccination campaign in history.
More on Vaccine Campaigns in History
- Vaccines Statistics and Numbers
- Milestones Towards the Eradication of Polio
- US Presidents and Vaccines
- We Know What Happens If We Stop Vaccinating
- COVID-19 Vaccination Questions and Answers
- Will New COVID-19 Vaccines Be Approved for Kids?
- Where Are the Pediatric COVID-19 Vaccine Trials?
- WHO Director-General’s opening remarks at 148th session of the Executive Board
- CDC – Seasonal Influenza Vaccine Supply & Distribution
- CDC – Historical Reference of Seasonal Influenza Vaccine Doses Distributed
- CDC – COVID-19 Vaccinations in the United States
- IAC – Historic Dates and Events Related to Vaccines and Immunization
- Disease Eradication
- Global Polio Eradication Initiative
- International Tuberculosis Vaccination Campaign
- CDC – Reflections on the 1976 Swine Flu Vaccination Program
- Mass immunization programs: principles and standards
- US military smallpox vaccination program experience
- Measles Vaccination Before the Measles-Mumps-Rubella Vaccine
- CDC – Achievements in Public Health: Elimination of Rubella and Congenital Rubella Syndrome — United States, 1969–2004
- Epidemic Diphtheria in Ukraine, 1991–1997
- One of the recent attacks of smallpox in Europe: A massive vaccination campaign during the epidemic in Wrocław in 1963
- Adverse events following immunization during mass vaccination campaigns at first introduction of a meningococcal A conjugate vaccine in Burkina Faso, 2010
- The International Tuberculosis Campaign: a pioneering venture in mass vaccination and research
- The Australian Measles Control Campaign, 1998
- Lessons from the eradication of smallpox: an interview with D. A. Henderson
- Madagascar 2018-2019 measles outbreak response: main strategic areas
- UNICEF reaches almost half of the world’s children with life-saving vaccines
- The COVID-19 vaccine race