vaccine

A vaccine is a substance introduced into someone’s body to prevent them from getting a specific disease. It usually consists of a small amount of a killed, weakened, or otherwise modified version of a disease (such as a virus or bacterium).

Vaccines work by allowing your immune system to develop defenses against that disease, called antibodies, so they can destroy it if it ever enters your body again.

Common vaccines include ones for strains of the flu, polio, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, tetanus, diphtheria, whooping cough, chickenpox, measles, mumps, and rubella. There are many others.

Example: The polio vaccine has saved millions of people.

The history of the word vaccine is inseparable from the history of vaccines themselves. The story usually starts with smallpox, a highly contagious disease that killed millions of people throughout history. For a long time, people tried to reduce the risk of getting a deadly case of smallpox by infecting themselves with material (a nice way of saying scabs or pus) from a person who had a mild case of it. Sometimes, it worked—but it could also kill people.

In the 1790s, English doctor Edward Jenner got a big idea when observing people who milked cows and had gotten cowpox (a mild skin disease in cows that can be transferred to humans). Such people often seemed to be immune to the similar but much more serious smallpox. Jenner developed a process of introducing a small amount of cowpox into people’s bodies to protect them against smallpox (at least temporarily). He called this process vaccination, based on the Latin name he developed for cowpox, variolae vaccīnae (from the Latin vacca, meaning “cow”). And thus vaccine—both the word and the thing—was born. The development of the smallpox vaccine eventually led to the complete eradication of smallpox from the world in 1979. (A few samples are still kept in highly secure labs in the United States and Russia for research purposes).

Widespread adoption of vaccines is credited with saving millions of lives and successfully suppressing the spread of diseases like polio.

Today, vaccines typically consist of a small amount of a disease that’s modified in a way that won’t make people sick, the way the same small amount of the unmodified disease could. Some of these vaccines are killed or weakened versions of the disease, while others are microorganisms whose DNA has been modified to make them ineffective. In any case, the idea is the same: introducing an inactive or less effective version of the disease allows the body’s immune system to produce antibodies. These antibodies are there to destroy the disease if it ever enters the body again—ideally, granting immunity against the disease.

This is why the term vaccination is closely associated with immunization. Another closely related term is inoculation, which refers to the process of introducing a substance like a vaccine into the body to boost immunity. Most vaccines are administered through the skin with a syringe, though some can be given in another way, such as with a nasal spray.

The most common side effect of vaccines is soreness around where the shot was given. Vaccines can have serious side effects, but they are extremely rare. (Out of a million vaccinations, a few people might have a severe allergic reaction.) However, some people in recent years have begun to oppose the use of vaccines, especially in children, due to varying beliefs about the risks involved, many of which are not based on science. Such people are said to be (or identify as) part of what has been called the antivax movement.

Doctors and public health officials urge the continued use of vaccines due to the risk of what could happen without them. Without vaccines, individuals and entire populations would be at risk of getting many once-widespread diseases that have nearly disappeared from daily life. (For example, in some areas with low vaccination rates, there have been outbreaks of diseases once largely suppressed by vaccination, such as measles.) Of course, not every disease can be prevented by vaccination, but scientists continue to work on the development of new vaccines.

What are some other forms related to vaccine?

• vaccinate (verb)
• vaccination (noun)
• vaccinator (noun)
• provaccine (adjective)
• antivaccine (adective)

What are some words that share a root or word element with vaccine? 

• antivax
• bachelor

What are some words that often get used in discussing vaccine?

• immunization
• inoculation
• immunity
• disease
• virus
• flu
• polio
• shot

Vaccine is commonly used in the context of medicine. Children get different vaccines at different ages, and many people get a flu vaccine every year.

Flu numbers are surging in Oklahoma, 649 hospitalizations and 12 deaths so far, and we’re nowhere near the peak. Get your flu vaccine! It even comes in a nasal spray. No excuses.

— Jackie Fortiér (@JackieFortier) January 9, 2020

45 year old died of cervical cancer. Don't tell me that HPV vaccine isn't important. #HPVisacancervaccine

— doctor runner (@MGastorf) December 30, 2019

The response to my criticism of belief in healing crystals: "if it's not hurting anyone who cares." Ignorance does hurt people, even if you don't see it. Somewhere in San Diego a woman is protecting her kid from polio with quartz instead of vaccines. That affects all of us.

— Garry Tonon (@Garry_Tonon) December 31, 2019

Which of the following words would NOT typically be used in reference to a vaccine? 

A. inoculation
B. shot
C. prescription
D. immunization