Group 3 Vaccination Project

     My group chose vaccination as our midterm project, and my task is to describe the pros of getting vaccinated.  I will talk about the top reasons to get vaccinated, namely the benefits to one’s health and lifestyle and to society as a whole.  The number of communicable diseases in developed countries has plummeted dramatically within the past century, which has contributed to an overall increase in the standard of living and productivity of the citizens within those countries.  Not only are people living healthier, disease-free lives, they are able to live longer and get sick less often since they are under attack by fewer disease causing agents.  This saves them time as well as money, as they are not having to recover from major illness as often as past generations and they are able to miss less work in doing so. Also, those who get vaccinated are able to protect those unable to receive the vaccine, whether due to an allergy to the ingredients or some other valid reason.  By having so little opportunity to infect individuals and spread, a disease is neutralized through herd immunity if a high enough percentage of the population is protected against that disease.  However, this barrier begins to break down once enough people stop becoming immunized.  This chink in the armor of protection against disease allows enough room for a disease to infect the unprotected and possibly mutate around the vaccine, so that everyone is at risk.  Also, it is much easier to isolate a single case than to stop an uncontrolled spread, which is yet another reason for as many people as possible to be protected.  All these reasons and more will comprise my portion of our project on Thursday.