How Vaccines are Social and Antibiotics are Antisocial

Vaccines, when used properly, act for the greater social good, and antibiotics, when used improperly, act for the social bad.

That is not as clear as black and white, yet there is a profound message inside!

Vaccines are social because everyone has to take them, whether they are in a village or a city, or live in an apartment or a slum.

They are also a ‘social good’ in an economic sense**, in that you getting vaccinated protects not just you but your neighbor too (Just like Cleanliness!). Vaccines protect the society!

Antibiotics on the other hand, are taken individually, for your own good. When you take them without proper indication, you may feel safe. But you are seeding resistance*, which makes them less effective for others. And it will come to haunt you as well when the same medicines no longer work for you later. So, antibiotics, when used improperly, are antisocial.

Be a team player — Embrace vaccines and be judicious with Antibiotics. And yes, be social and spread the message!

* A social good is something for which you may not feel the benefit (or loss) individually, but at a larger level. For example, if only one person is polluting a river it does not look like a big thing to him, but if everyone does, we convert it into a gutter

** By taking antibiotics even when you are healthy, you are training bacteria and viruses to combat them better. Antibiotic resistance can be a major cause of death in infections like TB, or even simple wound infections.