My understanding of how vaccines work and why you should ABSOLUTELY take them.

A thread.

PS: I’m not a doctor or scientist.

First and foremost, vaccines work.
They always have.
The chart below illustrates the impact it has had on contagions in the past. This WILL still be the case with the COVID vaccines we have available.

The way a vaccine works is, it teaches your body the physical structure of the virus. This is important because the way antibodies work is: they attach themselves to the foreign body and literally rip it apart and destroy it.

So obviously, it's more effective if your body actually knows the structure of the virus/bacteria
In the absence of a vaccine, it takes many many infection cycles for your body to learn this by itself.

That is why vaccines come from inactive strains of a virus. Because when injected, it helps your immune system quickly figure out how antibodies should be structured. This principle is the exact same behind every vaccine made to this day.

Since your body will eventually learn how to fight the vaccine, it's somewhat understandable to maybe not take a vaccine for diseases that are not too harmful.
BUT there are a couple of things to consider:
* how quickly an infection spreads
* how badly the infection affects us

Think of a group of people like a conductor of electricity. An unvaccinated population is like a copper wire, where the current can move FAST (top left box). Whereas a population where everyone is vaccinated is like current trying to pass through a bad conductor (bottom right)

In the end, it's a trade-off between short-term side effects like fever etc. vs the long-term impact of not taking the vaccine and spreading the virus and infecting more people around you.

Of course, vaccines help you fight infection, but the fact is, that if a COVID +ve person’s spit is on a railing and you touch it, and shake hands with someone, you can and will still spread it. So, even if we are vaccinated, we still need to practice caution.

Further, there are multiple mutations of the virus out there.
The good thing is, the mutations have not changed structurally, but if we don't universally vaccinate, there's a likelihood that the virus will change structurally in the future & the vaccine will stop being effective.

We’re in the midst of something extremely alarming, and it is our responsibility to not only stay strong and stay indoors through this ordeal, but also to vaccinate ourselves and encourage people around us to do the same.

Vaccines, just like many things in life, only work if we ALL do it. So, please be sure to spread the right information and be wary of anecdotal evidence. Ultimately, numbers don’t lie.

Stay positive. Test negative.