Why are Vaccines So Important?
April 2, 2022
Vaccines save lives. Through vaccination, the immune system learns how to combat potentially fatal illnesses through the development and learning of immunity, protecting the body from disease for many years to come. According to the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, vaccinations, specifically childhood immunization programs that focus on supplying the main types of youth vaccines (polio, MMR, varicella, etc.), “save 33,000 lives [and] prevent 14 million cases of disease.”
In addition to preventing your own body from disease, vaccinations also reduce the overall spread of illness, on a local, national, and global scale. When the majority of a population is vaccinated, “herd immunity” is developed, and it becomes much more difficult for disease to spread to those that may be more susceptible to its effects, such as those that are immunocompromised (people actively undergoing cancer treatment, those with preexisting chronic health conditions, etc.), infants, elderly people, and pregnant women. Vaccines are both an individual effort, as well as a group one, and are essential in ensuring the health and safety of all people.
For those that work and receive an education, getting sick means missing out on valuable material, assignments, and interactions. Vaccines help our bodies fight off infection, and keep us healthy so we can continue to tend to the responsibilities of daily life. When we are in good health, we have more time to spend doing the things that we love, such as spending time with family and friends, eating the foods we love, and traveling to the places we wish to see. Vaccines make all of these moments possible, and safe for enjoyment.
In focusing primarily on children, vaccinations ensure that young kids can live to become healthy adults. Even just a few decades ago, millions of children under the age of ten died every year as a result of common childhood diseases that are now capable of being prevented through the practice of inoculation.
Thanks to vaccines, public health has improved drastically, and many diseases that once resulted in millions of deaths each year now only resurface a few times a year in the occasional rare case. People are generally healthier, and the average global life expectancy has increased dramatically, with male life expectancy increasing from 48.1 years to 70.5 years and female life expectancy increasing from 52.9 years to 75.6 years. Vaccines played a significant role in this rise, and continue to contribute to the expansion and bettering of global public health.