#TO VACCINATE OR TO NOT VACCINATE

#TO VACCINATE OR TO NOT VACCINATE

What is a vaccine? A vaccine is a biological preparation that improves resistance to a specific disease. A vaccine usually contains an agent that resembles a disease-causing microorganism, and is often made from weakened or killed forms of the microbe, or one of its surface proteins. The agent stimulates the body's immune system to recognize the agent as foreign, destroy it, and "remember" it, so that the immune system can more easily identify and destroy any of that bacteria that it later encounters.
Here is a list on both the pros and cons of vaccination to aid you in your decision making:
Pros
1. Vaccines can save children's lives. The American Academy of Paediatrics states that "most childhood vaccines are 90%-99% effective in preventing disease." Vaccines save 2.5 million children from preventable diseases every year.
2. The ingredients in vaccines are safe in the amounts used.
3. Hostile reactions to vaccines are extremely rare.
4. Vaccines protect future generations. Vaccinated mothers protect their unborn children from viruses that could potentially cause birth defects, and vaccinated communities can help eradicate diseases for future generations. Such as small pox, and polio.
Cons
1. Vaccines contain harmful ingredients. Some physicians believe thimerosal, an organic mercury compound found in trace amounts in one flu vaccine for children and other vaccines for adults, is linked to autism.
2. Vaccines can contain ingredients some people consider immoral or otherwise objectionable.
3. Vaccines are unnatural, and natural immunity is more effective than vaccination. Even pro-vaccine organizations state that natural vaccination causes better immunity.
4. Most diseases that vaccines target are relatively harmless in many cases, thus making vaccines unnecessary.

By: Aneeqa Du Plessis