Lesson 7 Vaccination
- Vaccination is the holy grail of modern medicine.
- Vaccines have saved more than 1.5 million deaths worldwide!
- A current example of a newly developed vaccine is the one developed to fight the COVID-19 illness, which saved more than half a million lives through the end of 2021.
- Vaccination usually starts at an early age, while some are administered at an older age, such as the flu vaccine (adults >65).
- How do they work?
- Vaccines help our body produce antibodies (the disease-specific weapon that fights each disease). Vaccines do NOT contain the living pathogen!
Vaccines are developed to fight communicable diseases that can have severe consequences on your health.
Yet many people argue that receiving a vaccine is a danger itself. This has also been a common belief after the wide distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine.
The truth is that vaccines are highly unlikely to pose a threat to your health.
But how much unlikely?
Are all vaccines safe? Let us see how safe the new Covid-19 vaccines are.
Have you ever been to a large stadium before? You might have visited it to see a match or game, or you might have just seen it on TV.
Οne of the most well-known football stadiums across the world is the Camp Nou located in Spain. It has a capacity of approximately 100,000 guests.
Imagine that we have a stadium, filled with sports fans, all of which are vaccinated against the Covid-19 virus. The green dots represent those who have suffered from thrombosis and the red those with anaphylaxis
The 100,000 fans
- Did you find the green and red dots?
- Well, if you are having problems finding them, then do not worry.
- There are NO green and red dots.
- This is because anaphylaxis occurs in 5 cases per 1,000,000 people and thrombosis 4 per 1,000,000. This means that the chance of it occurring in at least one fan is so small that you may not even see it.
- Individuals with adverse outcomes from a vaccine have many health conditions that raise the chances of having one of these symptoms. If these conditions are known by a doctor, an immediate medication can prevent the symptoms.
- So, as you can see, vaccines are safe!