‘On Immunity’ (Summary)

by Eula Biss

When ‘On Immunity’ was chosen as the fourth book of A Year of Books I was skeptical. Hmm, over the past year I’ve seen articles flying around the media sky — everyone is talking about whether or not you should vaccinate your kids. Well, I don’t have kids, and I received all of the vaccinations, I think (right, Mom?). My relation to the topic was distant, so I scrolled right past every link that mentioned anything about vaccinations.

I thought this was a book trying to argue one side, with a heavy dose of bias towards vaccinating your kids, in hopes of scaring the other side into submission. It wasn’t. Eula Biss plunges into the facts while sprinkling her personal experiences on top. I must say, half way through the book I had a complete different mindset on vaccinations. Sure, it’s the point of the book, but I (now) feel confident that I am somewhat educated on the topic that is overtaking arguments around the internet.

Biss drops knowledge bombs about the immune system, things I certainly didn’t know. Her analogy of the immune system being in a continuous chess match was the perfect image to describe what happens inside our bodies every day. The competition is tough — viruses are always reinventing themselves with new strategies, trying to check-mate our immune system. Her theory, alongside many other smart people, is that vaccinations provide our immune system, at a young age, a very important lesson to battle the deadly viruses that float around our beautiful planet. One thing that I found intriguing was that our bodies learned at a young age how to respond to certain threats, and in some cases the earlier we learn, the better. My theory of vaccinations: if we introduce a small amount of a particular disease to the body we can force it to produce antibodies that our immune system stores in memory, sometimes for our entire lives. When we get older, these memories help fight off potential threats, this keeps us safe as we hop and skip through life’s jungle gym.

Towards the end of the book, Biss reminds us that, “allowing oneself to remain vulnerable to disease remains a legal privilege today.” — and, that to me, is the reason the argument has garnered so much attention over the past few decades. Many people believe that vaccinations will help us steer clear from harm’s way, but on the other side of the fence, people shout that vaccinations cause autism or other neurological diseases. According to this book, which points to scientific evidence, there is no direct correlation between vaccinations and neurological disorders. The evidence is given to us by the Institute of Medicine, a non-profit organization which aims to provide the public with reliable information based off of facts, or so-called facts (see, I never know who to believe). The last report done on the effects of vaccinations was in 2011 and was the most extensive tests done to date. These studies were two years long, and the people tasked with the research weren’t paid. The studies found that in over twelve thousand vaccination cases of adverse effects, only 9 of them resulted in convincing evidence that a particular vaccination caused something unexpected, or harmful. Out of those nine cases, four of them were cases that claimed chicken pox vaccinations caused chicken pox, which according to the study was expected. These studies were alarming to me, and if you’re keeping score at home, you’re looking at a .075% chance, that any claim against vaccinations was relevant. Of course, all of this evidence comes from the book, and I didn’t spend extra time researching the vast database of evidence. The evidence could be smoke and mirrors, but I felt heavily persuaded by the evidence according to the Institute of Medicine. And, if this institute is everything they say they are, then high fives to everyone who works there.

The book was short, which was good, because I was past due with the set timeline (1 book per 2 weeks). And, although I was immediately skeptical, I enjoyed learning more about a topic that I never had an interest in or researched. My only wish is that the truth would set itself free — the problem, like most things, is there will always be two sides to the story. I can’t imagine what it’s like to be a parent — experiencing what seems to be a never-ending avalanche of questions, where each answer is responsible for shaping the rest of your kid’s life.

Favorite Quote:

• “when enough people are vaccinated even with a relatively ineffective vaccine, viruses have trouble moving from host to host, and cease to spread.”

Should you read this book? - Yes, at some point, especially before you have kids.