Does vaccination do more harm than good?
Time and again there are public discussions about whether vaccination against a transmissible infectious disease makes sense or whether it is only in the interest of the pharmaceutical companies to vaccinate as many people as possible. In the past, there have already been countless successes against infectious diseases such as smallpox virus or diphtheria. For example, 100 years ago there were about 50,000 smallpox infections, but today this disease is virtually non-existent.
These successes are declared goals of a worldwide vaccination campaign. Modern vaccinations are usually very well tolerated, side effects occur only very rarely. The aim of the vaccination is to prevent the vaccinated person from contracting a contagious infectious disease.
If as many people as possible are vaccinated, i.e. a high vaccination rate is achieved, pathogens can be eradicated nationally and internationally. Simplified, the vaccination serves to activate the body’s own immune system against certain pathogens. A distinction is made between active and passive vaccination.
Here, components of the pathogen are administered either as live or dead vaccine and lead to the development of an immune competence against the pathogen without having to go through the disease itself. Live vaccines contain inactivated pathogens that cannot cause the disease but are still capable of reproduction. As dead vaccines, physicians refer to parts of dead pathogens that also lead to the development of immunocompetence.
In the case of an infection, so-called memory cells now remember the previous contact with the pathogen components and activate the immune system more effectively. Passive immunizations do not produce memory cells, since they do not administer pathogen components, but antibodies against certain pathogens. These ensure a faster elimination of the pathogen because they do not have to activate the immune system first.
Side effects can be local, i.e. redness, swelling and pain at the vaccination site, or they can trigger systemic reactions such as fever, malaise, headache and aching limbs. Serious side effects are very rare. Often the side effects are not related to the vaccination.
Opponents of vaccination criticize that the effectiveness of vaccinations has never been proven, which seems absurd from a medical point of view. A connection between the vaccination and an increased risk of developing autism has not been proven. Diseases such as pneumonia caused by pneumococcus in old age carry a far greater risk than vaccination. In summary, vaccinations are considered the most effective medical preventive measures and should be carried out without fail.
