What really reinvigorated vaccines was Prevnar, the pneumococcal vaccine that prevents against meningitis and ear infections. Here was the first vaccine to cross the billion-dollar mark.

When you're in the womb, you're in a sterile environment. When you enter the birth canal and the world, you're not. Very quickly, you have, living on the surface of your body, trillions of bacteria, literally trillion.

People are reticent to give a newborn the hepatitis B vaccine and often delay it.

Physicians who care for adults generally don't think about vaccines as much as pediatricians do, and adults think of vaccines as a kid thing.

If you've had a cough that lasted weeks, a cough that just doesn't seem to go away, chances are it was pertussis.

Vaccines are not traditionally big money makers. They're given once or a few times in one's life, so they're never going to be blockbusters.

Pneumococcus is a fairly common cause of pneumonia and [raises the] risk of death in older adults.