The vaccine is not just a vial.
It looks small enough to fit inside a glass bottle, but it actually shows the intelligence, priority and courage of a country. That is why I have always seen vaccination as a test of civilization.
In the early years of the Republic, we were a country that passed this test, because at that time the state did not say “I will take care of you when you get sick”. It said, “I will protect them before they get sick”. This is a huge difference in mentality. To treat is a humanitarian duty. But to protect is the job of the state mind.
Refik Saydam was a physician. He was a doctor who had seen the war and experienced how typhus, cholera and dysentery broke soldiers at the front. When he became Minister of Health, his priority was not only to treat, but also to stop the disease before it came. The Refik Saydam Institute of Hygiene, founded in Ankara in 1928, is the embodiment of this understanding.
It was no ordinary building. It produced smallpox vaccine. It was producing rabies serum. It was producing diphtheria and tetanus vaccines. In other words, this country was building its own immunity with its own labor. Imagine, a young Republic, in poverty but with vision. This has always made me proud.
Because producing vaccines is not just a matter of health. It is a matter of sovereignty. Lining up at the door of other countries at the time of an epidemic is not only a medical deficiency. It is also a strategic weakness.
Then the world changed. Biotechnology has transformed into a field that requires huge investments and advanced technology. We did not catch up with that transformation. The public production infrastructure was not updated. The institute weakened and closed down in 2011.
It was more than a door that closed.
It was a loss of direction.
We felt this painfully during COVID. We have the scientists. We have clinical power. But it is one thing to set up a million-dose production line. It is another to build a biotechnology ecosystem at global standards. Good intentions are not enough. Continuity is required. Patience is required. It requires a plan.
Today, companies like BioNTech and Moderna are taking mRNA technology beyond infectious diseases. Personalized vaccines are being discussed in cancer. Immunotherapy is opening a new threshold. Vaccination is no longer just about polio or measles. It is the future of cancer treatment and even some autoimmune diseases.
So what are we going to do?
Will we be a country that only buys or a country that produces?
Yes, it is expensive to produce vaccines. It is expensive to build facilities at GMP standards. It takes time to train qualified human resources. Compliance with international regulations requires patience. It requires continuous financing.
But the cost of the pandemic is more expensive. Economically expensive. It is socially expensive. It is also expensive in terms of loss of trust.
I think the issue is not about lamenting the past. The point is to honestly ask the question: Do we really put preventive medicine at the center?
Can we make scientific merit an unquestionable principle?
Can we think of health policy independently of the election calendar?
The real strength of the Refik Saydam era was not technology. It was vision. It was the state mind. It was an understanding that prevention comes before cure.
Can we rebuild production capacity?
Yes, we can.
But nostalgia is not the way to do it. Real investment. Transparency. Trust in scientists. Institutional continuity.
For a physician, the most painful picture is to lose a person to a disease that could have been prevented in time.
Immunity is not only a matter for the individual, but also for the state.
And this issue is not solved by emotional speeches, but by long-term wisdom.
The vaccine is not really just a vial.
It is a measure of how much a country values its people.