Vaccines

• Vaccine


  Exposes the body to weakened or inactivated pathogens, allowing the immune system to develop immunity without causing the full disease
• Vaccines


  • Contain weakened or inactivated pathogens
  • Pathogens still contain the same antigens
  • Body responds by producing antibodies and developing immunity
• Diseases vaccines can work against

  • Bacteria
  • Viruses
• By the time we start primary school, we've already been vaccinated against more than a dozen diseases that could otherwise kill us
• Pros of vaccines


  • Protect us from catching horrible diseases
  • Help control diseases that used to be common like polio, smallpox, measles, and whooping cough
  • Prevent big outbreaks of disease (epidemics)
• Herd immunity


  When enough people in a population are immune to a pathogen, the pathogen won't have anyone to spread to, causing it to disappear
• Even if a few people aren't vaccinated, they're unlikely to catch the disease because everybody around them is vaccinated
• Cons of vaccines


  • Vaccines don't always grant full immunity
  • Can cause bad reactions like swelling, fevers, or seizures (though these are rare)
• The pros of vaccination generally outweigh the cons