With the release the COVID vaccine, there is a lot of conversation about what vaccines are and how they work. With this conversation comes some truthful information, but a lot of misinformation as well. Vaccines are the best form of preventative medicine available and the creator of vaccines has been credited with saving the most lives of any physician. Without vaccines, fatal and debilitating diseases would run rampant through our community.

Unfortunately, due to false reporting by an unlicensed physician about the implications of vaccines and their link to autism, there has been a surge of mistrust and anti-vaccination attitudes in the last couple of decades. Children and families have had to undergo severe medical treatment that has been costly both financial and physically. Many of these incidents could have been avoided, but wrong and untrue information has reigned supreme in some households. Here is some information on how vaccines work, and how they can prevent common childhood diseases, especially those with debilitating impacts.

What are vaccines and how do they work?

How vaccines were invented.

Vaccines have been around since the early 1800s when Dr. Edward Jenner created the smallpox vaccine. He noticed that the milkmaids who had gotten cowpox didn’t get smallpox, a disease that spread worldwide in the early 13th-18th centuries. He guessed that exposure to cowpox helped prevent the spread of smallpox.

In order to test this, he took the material from cowpox sore on one of the milkmaids and injected it into a young child. Then he exposed this same child several times to smallpox and the child never developed it. Although extremely unethical now, his work paved the way for more research on vaccinations for other terrible diseases.

How vaccines work.

Vaccines are injectables that contain different materials designed to protect you from a devastating disease. Vaccines work by exposing your body to some element of a virus so that your body can figure out how to fight it and keep some reinforcements in its arsenal in case you are ever exposed to it again. This way, your body already has a defense at the ready that it can launch and fight the disease or illness before it has a chance to make you sick. This doesn’t mean you can’t get the disease, it means that if the virus enters your body, your body can respond so quickly, that you don’t even know that you’re sick.

There are different types of vaccines depending on what it is that you are injected with. Inactivated vaccines are vaccines that contain an inactive version of the virus. It still has the important components of the virus so your body can build its defense. However, it cannot make you sick. It doesn’t have the machinery that a normal virus does to cause illness.

Live-attenuated vaccines are vaccines that are alive, but are weakened so they still do not have the machinery to make you sick. They are required because for some vaccines, the inactive version is not going to give you the response that you need.

mRNA vaccines are vaccines that only have the mRNA of a virus. So, instead of having the full virus, it just contains the genetic pieces that help your body develop specialized immune cells that can fight it. This is what the COVID vaccine is. You cannot get sick from an mRNA vaccine and you are not being injected with the virus, just a copy of it’s genetic code.

There are also subunit, toxoid, conjugate, and vector vaccines, all of which only contain a small element of the vaccine that are potentially connected to another type of molecule that makes it easier to transport.

What are common vaccines and the illness they prevent?

Many vaccines are immunizations that children receive in their early years. It’s important they get these vaccinations at the recommended times because babies’ immune systems are so new and so underdeveloped that some of these diseases could actually be fatal.

Common inactivated vaccines protect against Hepatitis A, Flu, Polio and Rabies. Common live-attenuated vaccines are MMR, rotavirus, smallpox, chickenpox, and yellow fever. Covid-19, as mentioned, is an mRNA vaccine. Subunit or conjugate vaccines protect against H. Influenzae type B, Hep B, HPV, whooping cough, Pneumococcal, meningococcal and shingles. Finally, common toxoid vaccines include diphtheria and tetanus.

It is important that your child stays up to date on their vaccines or they could be at risk for many of these diseases that are extremely dangerous. Vaccines are so effective that many of these diseases have been eradicated.

Until recently, measles was almost thought to be gone. Polio and chickenpox are other diseases that used to be really common but have seen more cases as anti-vaxxers have gained popularity. Even the Covid vaccine has been shown to be effective, reducing cases, hospitalizations and deaths.

How does herd immunity work?

Herd immunity is another term that has gained popularity with Covid. Apprehension about the Covid vaccine has lead to an over-reliance on herd immunity. However, herd immunity requires a certain amount of the population to be vaccinated in order for there to be adequate protection.

Herd immunity works by having so many people vaccinated, that one or two unvaccinated individuals will be fine. There is enough protection around them to prevent the spread of the illness. Herd immunity breaks down when there is an increase in unvaccinated individuals all together. They pass the illness to one another and allow the virus to mutate so vaccines are no longer effective. This is exactly what is happening with the Covid vaccine. Not enough individuals are vaccinated so variants are allowed to develop and spread, even to the vaccinated community.

What happens if my child is not vaccinated?

If your child is not vaccinated, you are putting them at risk for fatal diseases. Even if these diseases do not kill your child, you will be putting undue stress on your family financially, physically, emotionally, etc. They will not be able to play with other children if they are sick, and may not get to be around other children if they are not vaccinated, regardless if they are not sick. Parents may not feel comfortable, especially if they have small children who are still waiting their disease.

Without vaccinations, your child could have physical ailments from diseases like polio. Their lungs could be severely impacted from the flu, whooping cough, or any other disease that impacts lung tissue. Their brains are especially at risk for meningococcal or pneumococcal meningitis which can cause severe swelling and inflammation of the brain and spinal cord tissue. This can lead to severe impairment from a very young age. If your child is bitten or steps on a nail, not having the DTaP vaccine can lead to tetanus. There are so many implications from not getting your child vaccinated, that it’s not worth it for your family or your community.