In Defense of Vaccination

Due to the recent swine flu scare, the general question of whether or not to vaccinate has become a "hot topic" of sorts. I believe that this being a subject of debate arises from ignorance and a lack of understanding regarding how vaccination works and what it consists of, rearing its ugly head in the form of widespread propaganda. I recently read an excellent book which clears up a fair bit of misconception on the subject, and I highly recommend that everyone check it out. It's called Viruses, Plagues and History, by Michael B. A. Oldstone, published 2010. It is a fascinating read that is both infomative and entertaining.

Contrary to popular belief, immunity is not an absence of disease. It instead is referring to a "bodily system (immune response) that, instead of precluding infection, enables the infected host to respond to infection by resisting disease" (Oldstone, 2010). Here is how it works: antigens (the proteins in viruses and bacteria) trigger an immune response. If that immune response is successful, the body gains a long-term protection from the offending virus or bacteria (Oldstone, 2010). Much of the propaganda warning against vaccination presents the misinformed notion that an injection of the disease is dangerous in and of itself, which is untrue.

What a vaccine does is stimulate the immune system, preparing it with a blueprint of the virus or bacteria (Oldstone, 2010). There are 3 main types of techniques to create vaccinations that have proven successful:

1. attenuation, in which a live virus is passed through the tissue culture of an animal, decreasing the disease-causing ability of the virus (Oldstone, 2010). This produces a weakened form of the virus which causes an immune response but does not cause the disease itself. Vaccines using this technique include those for smallpox, measles and yellow fever.





2. the virus is killed using formalin and then tested for its ability to produce immune response. The Salk poliomyelitis vaccine uses this technique (Oldstone, 2010).



3. peparation of the viral subunit, recombinant or DNA vaccine (Oldstone, 2010). Hepatitis B vaccine is a recombinant vaccine.

As is evident in the above descriptions, none of these vaccines is a simple injection of the virus itself. Vaccines are not dangerous in essence (though this is not to say that there is no margin of error - which there is - but it is quite minute); as decribed in Oldstone's history of viruses and plagues (2010), they have proven to be safe and incredibly useful in the relative eradication of widespread contagions.

An interesting article on this subjects and its grander implications is here.