Nobody likes getting a shot. They can hurt, and it's weird
knowing that the nurse is about to jab you with that needle. But
shots called vaccinations keep you from getting some serious
diseases. These diseases could make you very sick. The pinch of
a shot isn't nearly as bad as those illnesses. Shots protect you
by giving you only a tiny piece of a disease-causing germ or by
giving you a version of the germ that is dead or very weak.
Giving a whole germ that's alive would give you a disease (like
measles or chickenpox). But giving only this tiny, weakened, or
dead part of the germ does not give you the disease. Instead,
just the opposite happens. Your body responds to the vaccine by
making antibodies. These antibodies are part of your immune
system, and they can fight the disease if you ever come in
contact with that nasty germ. When your body is protected from a
disease in this way, it's called being immune to an illness. It
can't get you. In most cases, it means you won't get the illness
at all. But sometim