The next step to understanding the vaccine controversy is understand what a vaccine is. A vaccine is a biological creation, usually made from a dead or weakened versions of a disease, which when injected in the body, help build immunity from a certain disease. Immunity is the defense against a certain disease. If a person is immune to a disease, that individual can be exposed to that certain disease and not be sick. Vaccination is the process of presenting the human body with the vaccine and the human gaining immunity from the disease. Immunization is the process of a human being becoming protected from a pathogen through the act of vaccination (“Immunization: The Basics”). The vaccine, when introduced into the body usually by a needle injection, …show more content…
When the macrophages discover the weakened form of the virus, the macrophage engulfs as it normally would with an actual virus. Then the macrophages will present the T and B cell with the antigen of the virus. The T cell are stimulated and the B cells will produce antibodies to swiftly beat the virus. The ‘virus’ has now been eradicated and some of the B cells will become memory cells and remember how to defeat the virus if the individual is ever exposed to the virus in the future ("How Vaccines Work”). Vaccines may use artificial means, but they create a real, legitimate immune response. There has been a long history of controversy surrounding vaccines, dating back to shortly after vaccines were discovered. The first vaccine was created by Edward Jenner in 1796. He extracted the pus of cowpox blister and injected the liquid into a little boy. The little boy survived and the cowpox vaccine was created. Edward Jenner performed the same procedure with the boy, this time using smallpox (Stern and Markel). Due to the discovery of the smallpox vaccine, a mass amount of people wanted the vaccine. However, a great deal of people were