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Vaccines help save lives every day. They help protect you from illness spread by bacteria, viruses, and other microbes that cause illness.
You may think, “Why should I get a shot if I feel fine?” That’s missing the point. Vaccines help healthy people stay healthy.
Protecting ourselves in our community
Vaccines may prevent you from getting diseases caused by bacteria or viruses.
Vaccines are not just for your own protection. Getting vaccinated yourself also helps protect the people around you. It keeps you from spreading a serious disease to anyone who is not vaccinated.
People with certain health conditions, young children, the elderly, and pregnant women, can’t get some vaccines. So your choice not to get vaccinated may increase their risk of getting a disease or infection, as well as yours.
Protecting ourselves away from home
Many diseases that are rare in the US are common in other countries. Polio, typhoid fever, and yellow fever, for example, are still found in many other countries. We routinely vaccinate against some of these (like polio). But usually we don’t regularly vaccinate against all of them (like typhoid fever and yellow fever).
If you are traveling outside the US, then it’s important to talk with your doctor about which vaccines you may need to get.
Protecting our future
Before vaccines, thousands of people in the US died of once-common diseases that we can now prevent with vaccines. Without vaccinations, many of these now-rare diseases could become common once again.
Vaccination may help to get rid of some dangerous diseases. We have done that already with smallpox. The last case of smallpox reported anywhere in the world was in 1977.
By doing your part now, your children and grandchildren may never have to worry about diseases like chickenpox.
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