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Vaccines
A vaccine is a biological preparation that provides active acquired immunity to a particular disease. A vaccine typically contains an agent that resembles a disease-causing microorganism and is often made from weakened or killed forms of the microbe, its toxins, or one of its surface proteins. The agent stimulates the body's immune system to recognize the agent as a threat, destroy it, and to further recognize and destroy any of the microorganisms associated with that agent that it may encounter in the future. Vaccines can be prophylactic (to prevent or ameliorate the effects of a future infec
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Ask the Aztecs and Incas whether or not they would have liked to have vaccines available to the. Oh, wait--you can't. They're dead. Vaccination is one of the best things that has happened to civilization. Empires toppled like sand castles in the wake of diseases we do not give a second thought to today. If taking a moment to elaborate on that point will make this book unpopular with a large group of anti-vaxxers, that's ok. This feels like a good hill to die on. It's surely a better one than the
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In 1736 I lost one of my sons, a fine boy of four years old, by the small-pox, taken in the common way. I long regretted bitterly, and still regret that I had not given it to him by inoculation. This I mention for the sake of parents who omit that operation, on the supposition that they should never forgive themselves if a child died under it; my example showing that the regret may be the same either way, and that, therefore, the safer should be chosen.
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Tags contributing to this page include: vaccines, vaccination, vaccinations, and vaccine
