Here in the United States and in many other different places all throughout the world, vaccines save lives – as many as two and a half million of them in just one single year. Without vaccines, many highly preventable illnesses would be running rampant through our communities. Vaccines provide protection against these illnesses and diseases for adults as well as children, and the widespread use of vaccinations have improved the child mortality rate not only here within the United States, but in many places all throughout the world as well.
Vaccines prevent against very serious diseases as well as more mundane ones. Take the flu, for instance, a disease that reoccurs (in slightly different strains) each and every year during the winter months. The flu is so common that it is estimated that no less than five percent of the population of the United States and up to twenty percent of the population will contract it during any given year, though the exact number of people who get it will vary on a number of factors, such as the severity of the strain or strains that are currently circulating in that year.
The flu is thought of as a mundane illness, very similar in nature to something like strep throat or even the mere common cold. However, the flu can be incredibly dangerous, putting more than seven hundred thousand people into the hospital since the year of 2010. In that same span of time, up to fifty six thousand people have died of the flu and the complications that it is known to lead to in those who are susceptible to it.
The flu shot can help to limit the number of flu deaths and hospitalizations that are seen with each passing year. This is due to the fact that the flu vaccine works in a few different ways. While the typical flu vaccine is not one hundred percent effective in preventing the flu, it will considerably lessen the severity of the flu that you get if you have been vaccinated against it – and this itself will help to reduce the risk of medical complications as a result of it, as well as reducing the risk that you could potentially perish from contracting the mere flu.
The fears that surround the flu vaccination – or really any vaccination – are, on a whole, unfounded. For one, the flu vaccine cannot actually give you the flu, as there is not even a trace of a live virus found within it. And has been proven time and time again, vaccines do not in any way, shape, or form, cause autism or any other form of developmental delays. This means that, for the vast majority of the population here in the United States, the flu vaccine along with other vaccines are incredibly safe to get.
Of course, the proper storage of vaccines is necessary to keep them in the good condition that they should be. The use of a medical freezer is one such way to do so, but if you do not have access to a medical freezer, it is not necessarily the end of the world. If you don’t have a medical freezer or other type of lab freezer, it is very possible to use a vaccine refrigerator instead. Both the medical freezer and the scientific refrigerator will more than get the job done.
The right temperatures of both devices, medical freezer and undercounter lab refrigerator alike, also matter considerably. A medical freezer, for instance, should be kept at a temperature that does not ever dip below negative fifty eight degrees Fahrenheit but also does not rise above negative five degrees Fahrenheit. The lab refrigerator should be warmer, of course, but should not exceed a temperature of forty degrees Fahrenheit.
The growth of vaccines has proven incredibly important not only here in the United States but in many other places all throughout the country. Vaccines prevent debilitating illness – as well as some less severe ones as well. And it is crucial to note that for almost all people, the scheduled use of vaccines is completely safe.
