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Pros And Cons Of Vaccines

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Diseases have been around since the beginning of time. In response of disease, vaccinations were developed. Since the 1800’s, vaccines have been protecting adults and children from fatal diseases by building up immunity within the human body against such communicable diseases like smallpox, measles, and tuberculosis. Throughout history, vaccines have been widely accepted as mandatory for life events such as travel and school. While most of the world population welcomed vaccines enthusiastically, there are groups of people that believe the vaccines are more harmful than helpful.
Up until the 1790’s, it was unclear how to help anyone who came into contact with any communicable diseases. It was accepted that a person who contracted diseases such as smallpox or tuberculosis would eventually succumb to the disease. In May 1796, British physician, Dr. Edward Jenner discovered vaccination in its modern form by injecting an eight-year-old boy with cowpox matter to test his hypothesis that infection from cowpox could protect a person from smallpox given that smallpox and cowpox belong to the Orthopox family of viruses. After a small reaction and feeling ill for a few days, the boy, James Phipps, made a full recovery. Once recovered, Jenner then infected the boy with the smallpox virus consequently challenging the virus. When the boy remained healthy, Jenner proved that cowpox matter transferred to humans provided protection from smallpox and so began the vaccine era.
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