Like the attitudes some people have about the flu shot, some of us have been programmed to think that vaccinations make you sick because they introduce a virus into your otherwise, healthy body. While that is true, that is not the entire truth.
Vaccines are safe because they introduce virus and/or bacteria into your body that has been severely compromised. Most vaccines use viruses that have lost their ability to reproduce, are dead, or only contain one itty bitty protein from its cell surface in it. Thus, they do not have the capacity to make you sick.
Anyway, when our bodies are introduced to a new live virus, we fight it with our immune response, which I like to call our sexy soldiers. Some of these sexy soldiers remember what the invading virus looked like, so that next time they try to come back, they are almost instantly defeated. The cool thing about our sexy soldiers is that unlike me, they retain this memory for as long as you keep breathing (ie. your entire life).
So when we get a vaccine, we introduce a new virus into our army. And although it is dead, our sexy soldiers still produce an immune response and memorize what the invading vaccine looks like. Now next time we encounter that virus, our soldiers will know exactly what to do, and they will defeat it before we even notice!
So moral of the story...get vaccinated!
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