Uncertainties in Vaccination
Whereas vaccines have helped save millions of lives over the past several decades, today there is a significant anti-vaccination (anti-vaxx) movement, especially in the United States, that questions their safety. The problem is that these anti-vaxx arguments focus on rare cases of side effects or—even worse—on unfounded connections between the administration of vaccines and particular conditions such as autism. Such reactions make people overlook the fact that several diseases that in the past killed millions of people have been completely or almost completely eradicated thanks to vaccines. Even though vaccine side effects are a real possibility, one has to weigh the risk of facing those (which is very low and arise in relatively rare cases) against the hundreds or thousands of children who, thanks to the vaccine, will avoid hospitalization or even death. Uncertainties always exist, and we cannot be absolutely certain about the efficacy and safety of any vaccine. But for many of them, there is solid evidence that the problems are rare, and certainly the affected individuals are a lot fewer than those who might suffer and even die from the disease.