173 176
174 177
175 178
176 179
177 180
178 181
179 182
180 183
181 184
182 185
183 186
184 187
185 188
186 189
187 190
188 191
189 192
190 193
191 194
192 195
193 196
194 197
195 199
196 200
197 201
198 202
199 203
200 204
201 205
202 206
203 207
204 208
205 209
206 211
207 212
208 213
209 214
210 215
211 216
212 217
213 218
214 219
215 220
216 221
217 222
218 223
219 224
220 225
221 226
222 227
223 228
224 229
225 230
226 231
227 232
228 233
229 234
230 235
231 236
232 237
233 238
234 239
235 240
236 241
237 242
238 243
239 244
240 245
241 246
242 247
Introduction
Vaccines are a hot topic today, but that’s really not anything new. They have been lauded, criticized, and discussed for hundreds of years, although the creation of new vaccines has certainly accelerated over the past 70 or so years. Yet dozens of misconceptions about vaccines still exist. For every person who embraces being fully vaccinated, there’s someone who questions certain vaccines or, worse, rejects them altogether, despite their proven benefits.
This book is for both groups — the people who vaccinate themselves and their families but who want to know more about them, and the people who have questions about vaccines. Our goal is to have everyone vaccinated and, even more important, happy knowing they’re doing the best thing for their health.
About This Book
Obviously, vaccines are the main topic of this book. But we intend to do more than just give you a vaccine schedule. We explain the history of vaccines (and it goes back much further than you might think), talk about the types of germs and diseases that led to vaccine development, and explain why the vaccine schedules are set up the way they are. We also discuss the myths about vaccines, especially with regard to children, and explain why the vaccine schedules have changed over the years.
A quick note: Sidebars (shaded boxes of text) dig into the details of a given topic, but they aren’t crucial to understanding it. Feel free to read them or skip them. You can pass over the text accompanied by the Technical Stuff icon, too. The text marked with this icon gives some interesting but nonessential information about vaccines.
One last thing: Within this book, you may note that some web addresses break across two lines of text. If you’re reading this book in print and want to visit one of these web pages, simply key in the web address exactly as it’s noted in the text, pretending as though the line break doesn’t exist. If you’re reading this as an e-book, you’ve got it easy — just click the web address to be taken directly to the web page.
Foolish Assumptions
Here are some assumptions about you, dear reader, and why you’re picking up this book:
You want to learn more about vaccines in general.
You’re willing to keep an open mind about vaccines and vaccinations.
You’re looking for more information about how vaccines are created.
You have questions about vaccine scheduling.
Icons Used in This Book
Like all For Dummies books, this book features icons to help you navigate the information. Here’s what they mean.
Beyond the Book
In addition to the material in the print or e-book