Disease

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Advantages and Disadvantages of Vaccinations

For most people, getting vaccinated is beneficial to both the individual and the wider population. For some people, however, vaccinations do have their drawbacks.

To date, vaccines have saved millions of lives from several diseases. However like most things, they have pros and cons.

We know that vaccines help control infectious diseases. For example, smallpox had been entirely eradicated. How much do you think the number of cases of polio has decreased by since the polio vaccine was invented in the 1950s?

If enough people are vaccinated against a particular disease, it makes large outbreaks of the disease less likely. What other word do we use for "large outbreaks"?

When enough people in a population are vaccinated against an infectious disease, epidemics are much less likely.

It is harder for diseases to be passed from person to person, protecting even those who are not immune. We call this herd immunity.

To summarise, which of these are advantages of vaccines?

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While vaccines have been an extremely important factor in increasing the health of the human population, they do have some cons as well. Which of these do you think are cons?

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In 1998, a study was published by a (now discredited and struck off) doctor who suggested that vaccines could cause autism. Years of further studies by scientists have proven there is no link between vaccines and autism. Nevertheless, the discredited study has deterred some parents from vaccinating their children.

If a parent decides not to vaccinate their child, does that just affect that child?

There are people who we can't give vaccinations to. Maybe they are too sick to be able to fight off even the disabled pathogens in the vaccine or they might be allergic to the vaccine. For some people, the vaccine might simply not work. If almost everyone else is vaccinated against a disease, these unfortunate people are likely protected through herd immunity, but if we stop vaccinating people who can be vaccinated, the people who can't could easily contract these diseases.

To summarise, which of these are disadvantages of vaccines?

You can select multiple answers