Celebrating & Appreciating Vaccines

Writer: Atessa Editor: Dhriti

In a world and time where vaccines are practically keeping society afloat, we should take some time to celebrate and appreciate them. August is National Immunization Awareness Month in America, so let’s learn about why and how vaccines play a key role in keeping people healthy!

A brief history of vaccines:

Various methods of immunization have been around for hundreds of years. This can even date back to when “Buddhist monks drank snake venom to confer immunity to snake variolation (smearing of a skin tear with cowpox to confer immunity to smallpox) was practiced in 17th century China.”, (The Immunisation Advisory Centre). Even though these practices came first, Edward Jenner is appraised to be the founder of vaccinology in the West. It all started in 1796 when he inoculated a 13-year-old boy who was infected with cowpox and the boy later showed immunity to the virus. This later lead to the first vaccine for smallpox being invented in 1798. This allowed smallpox to eventually be eradicated globally in 1979. Thanks to vaccines not only for smallpox, but science has also been able to save possibly millions of lives. This seems too perfect to be true, which it is. Even though many people trust that vaccines work, there will always be an opposing party, the anti-vaxxers.

Anti-vaxxers:

Over the past few years, becoming an anti-vaxxer has become vastly popular around the world. A lot of anti-vaxxers are against being vaccinated because they believe there are microchips in vaccines, vaccines will cause autism or vaccines are pointless, and people should live life naturally. Science has time and again proven these accusations to be false, but people still choose to ignore the facts. It is true that everyone has the right to the choice of being vaccinated, but we need people to step up to save those who are unable to be vaccinated due to health issues. In America, most of the deaths from COVID-19 are now from unvaccinated people. Using this logic, if everyone eligible for the vaccine got it, there would be barely any deaths. This is proof that we need everyone who can get vaccinated to get vaccinated as soon as possible. We need to recognize how lucky we are to get vaccinated so easily. There are places in the world where people haven’t even received their first COVID-19 shot because a lot of the first-world countries have sort of hogged a lot of vaccines. There are people who are denying these vaccines because of silly and false conspiracy theories ranging from infertility to saying that the vaccine makes you magnetic. I have included a couple of trusty sources that you can check out if you don’t believe me. Please be completely aware of how you may negatively impact your health or someone else’s before you decide to turn down a vaccine.

How to celebrate and thank the medical field:

The best thing that you can do to thank the medical field in this context is to get vaccinated! Whether it’s your yearly flu shot or your two COVID-19 vaccines, you are going to positively impact society. You can also make sure that all your friends and family that are eligible for the vaccine get it. Some other things you can do are donate to non-profit medical organizations, attend educational webinars, keep up with your local health guidelines, and wear a mask. Remember to respect these people because they have all worked so hard to keep us healthy and safe!

Sources:

“A Brief History of Vaccination.” Immunisation Advisory Centre, 8 Jan. 2020, www.immune.org.nz/vaccines/vaccine-development/brief-history-vaccination.

Johnson, Carla K. “Nearly All COVID Deaths in Us Are Now among Unvaccinated.” AP NEWS, Associated Press, 29 June 2021, https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-health-941fcf43d9731c76c16e7354f5d5e187

Schraer, Rachel. “Covid Vaccine: Fertility and Miscarriage Claims Fact-Checked.” BBC News, BBC, 11 Aug. 2021, www.bbc.com/news/health-57552527.

Allain, Rhett. “No, Covid-19 Vaccines Won't Make You Magnetic. Here's Why.” Wired, Conde Nast, 21 June 2021, www.wired.com/story/no-covid-19-vaccines-wont-make-you-magnetic-heres-why/.