Future Sci Chat #3 - Vaccinations

Outbreaks in North America of measles (red), mumps (brown), and whooping cough (bright green). Source (retrieved 2014-07-02).So, The handsome gentlemen co-host of Future Chat and future new-media baron Rob Attrell has asked me to write a brief summary on vaccinations in preparation for Future Sci Chat #3.  I told him I'd do what I can, and you may see the results below.  For those of you wishing to read the post I wrote in 2011 on the very same topic, have a link. So what's a vaccination?They're a good thing.  A vaccination is often an injected dose of a live, or sometimes dead virus.  The virus has either been sterilised (no reproduction means no infection) or treated in such a way that it will not be able to harm the patient.  The body then produces the antibodies required to fight off the virus, which are then able to fight off or otherwise discourage a future infection of the same virus.  It is not uncommon for the patient to experience symptoms