How do we overcome vaccine hesitancy in our community?

Anti-vax demonstrators protesting against a bill to tighten vaccine exemptions in the US. Photo: AP

A vaccine is a biological product that provides or improves immunity to a specific disease. It typically contains an agent that resembles a disease-causing microorganism, and is often made from weakened or killed forms of either the microorganism, its toxins or one of its surface proteins.

The vaccine stimulates the body’s immune system to recognise the agent as foreign, destroy it and “remember” it. When the body is subsequently exposed to the same microorganism, the immune system can recognise it more easily and destroy it.