Vaccines are Important
for Everyone

It’s not just children who need vaccines. Adults and teens need vaccines too. But why vaccinate if you can run to the doctor or emergency room if you are sick? Prevention through vaccination means you don’t miss work or a family event, especially the ones that happen once like graduations and weddings. Prevention means you won’t pay money in medicines, visits to providers, or for tests. Prevention means you are less likely to get sick, have lasting damage, or die from disease. Vaccines have saved people from lasting damage that includes things like blindness, physical disability, and disfigurement. Most people have few if any, side effects or reactions to vaccines, but if you have questions about them, we welcome you to explore this website and other reputable sites such as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH):

HHS Vaccines Information and Safety
CDC Vaccines Information

Three Things to
Remember About Vaccines

**If you have ever had a reaction to a vaccine or have a compromised immune system, please discuss all vaccines with your doctor.**

ONE.

Vaccines are considered to be safe and effective worldwide.
Your medical doctor will agree.

TWO.

They save millions of lives each year.

THREE.

Vaccines undergo thorough testing for safety to be sure they work. Even while they are in use, they are continually watched and tested.

How Vaccines Save Lives

Vaccines have played an instrumental role in transforming life, public health and shaping history. To say their impact has been profound is an understatement. Through disease prevention and global well-being, vaccines have changed lives and changed the world for the better.

Since at least the 15th century, people worldwide were intentionally exposed to disease in the hopes of building immunity.  The first documentation of this is with smallpox (WHO). Smallpox killed millions of people until 1949 and often children were those most at risk. In more recent records, the CDC says 3 out of every 10 people died. Many smallpox survivors have permanent scars over large areas of their body, especially their faces. Some are left blind.

The modern impact of vaccines begins with the groundbreaking work of Edward Jenner, who pioneered the smallpox vaccine in the late 18th century. This milestone achievement marked the dawn of immunization, leading to the eventual global eradication of smallpox in 1980 and subsequent developments, such as the polio vaccine.

Polio was fearsome. Parents were deeply frightened for their children as it could kill or permanently disable and struck without warning. This virus changed people’s lives and behavior. Parents acted often in desperate need to protect their children. They sent their kids to the country and kept them out of pools and other gathering places. They also sent dimes to the White House hoping to fund a cure. Parents did anything they could without knowing if anything would help.

If you’ve ever heard of an iron lung, these were used notably with polio victims whose muscles used for breathing stopped working. The last man, Paul Alexander, who had polio and became dependent on an iron lung died in March of 2024. The Milwaukee Independent shares stories and photos of that time., Can you imagine their desperation? In 1955, the entire country celebrated the creation of a vaccine, and Jonas Salk, its inventor, became an overnight hero. By the 1960s there were more vaccines to protect us.

Recent advancements in vaccine technology, exemplified by the development of mRNA vaccines, have ushered in a new era of innovation. The rapid deployment of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines has highlighted the transformative potential of cutting-edge vaccine platforms, offering hope for more effective responses to emerging infectious threats.

The impact of vaccines on public health cannot be overstated. Vaccines have significantly reduced the burden of once-deadly diseases, prevented millions of deaths, and spared countless individuals from suffering.

There is still no cure for many of these devastating diseases, vaccines are all that keep us safe. Still, it is hard to imagine how devastating these diseases were because we now have routine vaccination in childhood.  Now, we have flu, earaches, and broken bones to worry about. Before the various vaccines, parents worried about measles, mumps, chicken pox, tetanus, polio, and their results — disability, blindness, and death.

The history of vaccines is a testament to human ingenuity, perseverance, and compassion. Vaccines have truly been miraculous. Please vaccinate.

 

How Do Vaccines Work?

All vaccines teach our bodies how to fight specific illnesses. In small, controlled ways vaccines make your body think it is sick and tell your immune system to fight back. Later, if you are exposed to the actual virus, your body already knows how to fight it and keep it from making you ill. The differences between vaccines are how they trigger the small, controlled reactions. More information about vaccinations given in the U.S. can be found on the CDC website.

To learn more on the various types of vaccines, you can read here, or click the Vaccine Types button below.

Terms
You
Should
Know

Terms You Should Know

You can learn more about
vaccines and key words by visiting
the CDC’s Vaccine Glossary.

You can learn more about
vaccines and key words by visiting
the CDC’s Vaccine Glossary.

CELL:

All living creatures are made of building blocks called cells. Cells are the smallest structural units that form life.

VACCINE:

A substance that teaches your body to fight a disease.

IMMUNE RESPONSE:

The body’s response to fight sickness. This is what vaccines trigger that help develop a defense or fight against the sickness.

VIRUS:

A germ that gets into the body and forces cells to copy it and make more germs, so they increase in number and spread through the body. Viruses can make people sick. SARS-coV-2 is the name of the virus that causes COVID-19.

SIDE-EFFECT / REACTION:

A possible health problem or response to a medicine or vaccine. These reactions may not occur at all, may be minor, may be caused by vaccine/medicine, or may not be related.

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Traditional Vaccines

(Weakened or Killed Virus)

Usually, what we think of when we think of vaccines is a traditional egg or cell-based vaccine, which uses a killed or weakened virus to trigger our body’s immune response (fight response).

ONE.

Egg-Based Flu Vaccines

Egg-based vaccines can be made from the virus or bacteria that scientists grow in chicken eggs. It is either alive or not alive (inactivated (killed) vaccine and live attenuated (weakened) vaccine). The killed (dead) versions can use the whole virus molecules, but most are made from only parts of it. Our bodies recognize these parts as foreign and begin to fight (Medical News Today).

In the U.S., flu vaccines in the past have been made using this egg-based manufacturing process, but not all. The flu shot is usually “dead” virus. In the nasal spray flu vaccine the virus is live but weakened.

SAFETY:
Though chicken eggs are not in the vaccine, if you are allergic to chicken eggs or have had a previous reaction to a vaccine, talk to your doctor about whether you should receive one of these vaccines and what other options might be. The flu shot is particularly important right now. If you haven’t received it, discuss it with your doctor immediately.

TWO.

Cell-Based Vaccines

For the 2019-2020 influenza season, all the vaccines developed were cell-based, making the vaccines egg-free. The viruses used in the cell-based vaccines are grown in cultured cells of mammals/animals, instead of in chicken eggs. The scientists put the virus into cultured (grown) mammal cells (not eggs), which allows the virus to make copies. Then, the virus is collected from the cells and is killed (CDC). That is what makes up the vaccine and triggers an immune or fight response in your body.

SAFETY:
Studies have shown greater protection against flu in people who received this type of flu vaccine. Most people do not have the side-effects/reactions associated with the vaccine. Ten percent or less of people who received it had local and systemic reactions. In adults 18-64 years of age, twenty-eight percent had injection site pain, thirteen percent had injection site reddening of skin, sixteen percent had headache, twelve percent had fatigue, eleven percent had muscle pain, and ten percent had malaise (a general unwell feeling). In addition to flu, cell-based vaccines include rotavirus, polio, smallpox, hepatitis, rubella, and chickenpox. If you have had a reaction to a vaccine, always check with your doctor before getting a vaccine. Cell-Based Flu Vaccines webpage.

Newer Vaccines

ONE.

Subunit Vaccines

Subunit vaccines (including recombinant, polysaccharide and conjugate vaccines) all use specific pieces of the virus — like its protein, sugar, or capsid (a casing around the germ). Toxoid vaccines use not a part, but a toxin (harmful product) made by the germ that causes a disease. Subunit vaccines create immunity to the parts of the virus that cause a disease instead of the whole virus.

TWO.

Viral Vector Vaccines

Viral vectors use a harmless virus as a delivery vehicle like UPS does for packages of another kind. They carry parts (usually from the outside of the virus molecule) of a virus into one of your cells (through vaccination) and tell the cell to make more of those parts. They body then reacts to those parts of the virus and fights with an immune response.

SAFETY:
The vector itself is usually a common virus cell. It is possible for the body to already have an immune response to it. In that case, the vaccine won’t work as well (The Scientist).

THREE.

Nucleic Acid Vaccines

Nucleic acid vaccines, sometimes called genetic code vaccines (the virus’ code, not yours) use partial genetic material from a disease-causing virus or bacteria. Depending on the vaccine, the genetic material could be DNA or RNA; it tells your cells to make more of that partial genetic material. In the case of COVID-19 virus, they use the spike on the outside of the virus. Your immune system identifies that portion of spike as foreign and responds (Gavi, Vaccine Alliance). Your body then knows how to fight if it is exposed later to the whole virus (Dr. Francis Collins, NIH). The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are mRNA vaccines.

SAFETY:
The concept of mRNA started many years ago. Scientists have been working to perfect it since so it is not new. Before COVID-19, there were several mRNA vaccines in trials for cancer. There is no live virus, and it does not interact with your DNA. In fact, once the spike protein copy is made, the mRNA dissolves (CDC). If you have a compromised immune system, talk to your doctor before getting a mRNA vaccine.

Safety Monitoring
of Vaccine Development

Vaccines are developed in stages: first in the laboratory, then in human trials in three stages, with more and more people taking the vaccine and being monitored by those making the vaccine. Also monitoring are outside groups including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to make sure scientific and ethical standards are met. More information can be found at on the CDC website.

U.S. Government Agencies Monitoring Vaccine Safety

Health agencies like the CDC and FDA monitor the safety of all vaccines licensed in the United States, including seasonal flu (influenza) vaccines. Vaccines are only licensed after the FDA’s thorough review process. Following licensing, there is more monitoring for safe manufacturing of the vaccines and through the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), where healthcare personnel or you can report a reaction to a vaccine. Please visit the CDC or FDA for more information.

In addition, some states have added safety review steps. For instance, in California, they have created a Scientific Safety Review Workgroup specifically to evaluate the COVID-19 vaccines. To learn more, visit your state’s health department website by choosing your state on this page.