To Vaccinate or Not?

Vaccination reduces the burden of infectious diseases and is proclaimed tobe the single most effective strategy protecting humans from their wrathand therefore the mutli-billion dollar global campaigns to protect from anderadicate the current pandemic of Covid 19. Vaccines are arguably a publichealth success story as well as an incredibly expensive albeit cost-effectivemedical resource. Though vaccinations are credited with the decline inoccurrence of vaccine preventable diseases medical historians and statisticsreveal that this was precipitated due to the concurrent vast improvementin hygiene and social practices. Poignant questions about the safety andefficacy of vaccinations have been raised regardless of the opinion thatvaccinations have decreased morbidity and mortality related to contagiousdiseases in the twentieth and twenty first centuries. Further eradication isan ideal goal for an immunization programme however till date onlysmallpox has been eradicated. The intention of this review is neither aimedat being pro or against vaccination merely presenting peer-reviewedscientific studies and data so as to aid informed decision making.