Preventing and healing of infectious diseases joining the development of man was ever a continuous demand of the everyday life in course of our history. This study concerns the earlyendeavours and observations and later the scientific research, which lead through a number of experiences and experiments to the discovery of immunisation against specific infections. All vaccines do have a special and long history. There were emerging not only fierce theoretical debates in the laboratories, but human fates, excellent ideas of preeminent scientists, enduring activities and parallel jealousy, trips and struggle for primacy, for the hopeful winning the Nobel-price, together with highly devoted fighting against diseases. First had to be identified the pathologic agents, which was the first step to the specific vaccines followed by long-lasting experiments about the best preventive effect by minimum of adversity. Unfortunately, there are no vaccines without side effects. Developing any vaccine is a time-consuming procedure with huge financial expenses and clinical trials before widespread administration on humans. Actually, we experience immediately the just emerging COVID-19 pandemic, the endeavours to develop a specific vaccine and the enormous social pressure for distributing the vaccine as soon as possible under the given market economy circumstances. Nevertheless, only a short time passed since the beginning. However, the story was the same concerning all vaccines applied thus far.  Kulcsszavak: pandémia, történet, kutatás, varioláció, vakcináció, politika