Is vaccination a matter of personal decision or common benefit?

Introduction

In recent decades, vaccination has generated endless controversies. On the one hand, in the history of medicine it has been an unprecedented biomedical achievement, dramatically reducing the death of millions of people from diseases such as smallpox, measles, polio, among others. On the other hand, various individuals have come together to question the efficacy of vaccines, and even bring to light the financial interests that are hidden behind these massive vaccination campaigns. These trends have divided the population into two large groups, the provaccination, and the antivaccination movements.

People who agree with and promote vaccination generally present an argument based on the common benefit, that is, vaccinating people allows some diseases to be eradicated. As fewer people get vaccinated, diseases continue to show up. On the contrary, the people who integrate the antivaccination movements consider that it is a form of manipulation and that a person does not agree with vaccination must be respected. Considering these two positions, is there a way to determine who is right? Is it a matter of public health or individual rights? Throughout this writing, some aspects that are crucial will be analysed in order to have a clearer outlook.

Biological foundations of vaccines

To have a solid argumentative basis to discuss either of the two positions, it is necessary to be informed about the biological mechanism of vaccines. To understand how vaccines work, it is required to take a look at how our immune system works. The immune system includes a large number of cell types such as macrophages, T lymphocytes, B lymphocytes, dendritic cells, antigen presenting cells, natural killer cells, among others. In the face of any pathogen or aggressor factor that enters the organism, the immune cells will carry out a cascade response beginning with the recognition of the type of aggression, the presentation of that "aggression" or antigen to the appropriate cell and finally the neutralisation or cytotoxicity towards the antigen caused by T lymphocytes; as well as the production of antibodies that favor a humoral response, produced by B lymphocytes. We have two types of immunity, innate immunity and acquired immunity. Innate immunity, as its name suggests, will act against aggressors or antigens that the body already recognises previously, thanks to genetic inheritance. Nevertheless, as part of the benefits of evolution, acquired immunity was also developed,

1. Morens and Fauci (2020) discuss three variables that are relevan...