Let us just begin by asking and then answering a couple of basic questions about immunizations. What IS an immunization? And WHY would I want one? Perhaps we should back up even further and talk about the immune system itself for a moment.
Your immune system is the reason you are alive today. Even before you took that first breath, your immune system has been fighting off disease. Yes, those same diseases that have plagued mankind for centuries. Diseases that we have all read about in the annuls of history. Diseases like cholera, polio, tetanus, diphtheria, the bubonic plague, and even the now infamous coronavirus (COVID-19). And no, they haven’t disappeared from the planet, and they won’t. You’ve just fought them off and you didn’t even know it was happening. How is that for an amazing immune system? Maybe these diseases are around less with better sewer systems and running water, but these diseases are still around. Travel to Africa or Mexico and you’ll see.
So how does all this immunity work? Simply put, you have cells in your body (T-cells and B-cells as we’ve named them) that were created to identify foreign bodies like viruses and bacteria that shouldn’t be there. When these foreign germs appear, these special cells are designed to attack them by creating a specific antibody that destroys them. And since you haven’t had these diseases, your immune system obviously works very well. Thank God. Literally.
Modern medicine has then come along and attempted to help you by purposely taking these same germs and modifying them so that they are similar but not disease-causing and then injecting them into your body to initiate the same immune response ahead of usual exposure. This is called getting an immunization. Yes, we purposely expose you to polio so that you don’t get polio. Or so the theory goes.
We are not saying that this is always the best thing to do. There are risks and side-effects but admittedly they are rare, and far more people are helped by vaccines than are harmed.
At Assurance Healthcare & Counseling Center we allow each person to make that decision for themselves and for parents to make that decision for their children.
For questions or comments, reach out to us via our contact form.