Instructions

Read the following passage and answer the THREE questions that follow.

If we imagine the action of a vaccine not just in terms of how it affects a single body, but also in terms of how it affects the collective body of a community, it is fair to think of vaccination as a kind of banking of immunity. Contributions to this bank are donations to those who cannot or will not be protected by their own immunity. This is the principle of herd immunity, and it is through herd immunity that mass vaccination becomes far more effective than individual vaccination.
Any given vaccine can fail to produce immunity in an individual, and some vaccines, like the influenza vaccine, are less effective than others. But when enough people are vaccinated with even a relatively ineffective vaccine, viruses have trouble moving from host to host and cease to spread, sparing both the unvaccinated and those in whom vaccination has not produced immunity. This is why the chances of contracting measles can be higher for a vaccinated person living in a largely unvaccinated community than they are for an unvaccinated person living in a largely vaccinated community.

The unvaccinated person is protected by the bodies around her, bodies through which disease is not circulating. But a vaccinated person surrounded by bodies that host disease is left vulnerable to vaccine failure or fading immunity. We are protected not so much by our own skin, but by what is beyond it. The boundaries between our bodies begin to dissolve here. Donations of blood and organs move between us, exiting one body and entering another, and so too with immunity, which is a common trust as much as it is a private account. Those of us who draw on collective immunity owe our health to our neighbors.

Question 74

Why does the author think about vaccination as a “banking of immunity?”

Solution

Option E is the correct answer. The author mentions that “Contributions to this bank are donations to those who cannot or will not be protected by their own immunity,” which implies that vaccination protects those who may not have access to it.

Option A is incorrect as the passage does not suggest that vaccination creates a reserve of immunity within a person’s immune system. 

Option B is incorrect as the passage does not state that when somebody is vaccinated, it is a deposit of protection against a particular disease. 

Option C is incorrect as the passage does not mention that different vaccines contribute to a diverse portfolio of immune defences.

Option D is incorrect. While the passage suggests that vaccination provides a safety net, it does not explicitly state that this is why vaccination is considered a “banking of immunity.”


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