The Vaccine Story

Once upon a time, there was a complex kingdom. Its name was The Body. The Body was ruled by the Human Being dynasty for a long long period of time. This dynasty had many enemies, some huge and some very tiny. The larger enemies were dangerous, but the Human Being dynasty had found a very effective weapon to save its kingdom from them. The name of the weapon was the fire. The larger enemies of The Body, such as the Lions and the Tigers were afraid of fire, and since the invention of that weapon, they had been in fear of the Human dynasty. Also, these bigger enemies were easily seen and Human Beings were always ready before the enemy could attack The Body. But The Body's tinier enemies were more dangerous than the larger ones because they could never be seen attacking. They were well hidden before an attack, because of their size. They would find small cracks in the walls that made up the fortress of The Body. They would then secretly enter the kingdom and attack it from the inside. 

For hundreds of years, the Human dynasty suffered huge losses. But since the tinier enemies were not easily visible, the Human dynasty thought of it as dark magic and witchcraft! Whenever The Body was attacked from within by this tiny enemy, the Human dynasty would think that God had cursed the kingdom because of some wrongdoing. However, after years and years of thinking such things, two clever members of the Human Dynasty named Robert Hooke and Antoni van Leeuwenhoek decided to check why for years their kingdom was suffering. They then found out that these tiny creatures were everywhere. The major ones attacking The Body were The Virus Dynasty, The Bacteria kingdom, and The Fungi Dynasty. These tiny enemies were collectively called the Microbes! After that, the Human Being Dynasty became smarter, they found ways to detect the tiny enemies and also found out how this enemy attacked The Body. But their old weapons were all designed to defend from large enemies, so they decided that to protect their kingdom, they need to find new ways of defense from these little enemies. 

They allotted this job to some of their smarter scientists. After centuries of research, the scientists found new weapons that could protect their kingdom from the attack of Viruses, Bacteria, and Fungi. During these centuries, they also found out some more Microbes, such as the Worms dynasty and the Protists dynasty. But their attacks were fewer and less frequent. So, the scientists made different weapons that could either prevent the attack or if attacked, could kill the enemy! The scientists decided that in order to prepare the Defense Department of The Body, they would bring half-dead Microbes and pretend that the Microbes were launching a full-fledged attack on The Body. But now that the Defense Department knew that the attack was not witchcraft or God's punishment, it prepared its soldiers, the White Blood Cells. The White Blood Cells attacked the half-dead microbes. But since the attack was a fake attack, the White Blood Cells won easily. In this all drama, the White Blood Cells found out that for attacking the half-dead microbes, they all got special weapons known as antibodies. Next time, when the real, strong microbes attacked, the soldiers of The Body knew which weapon to use. They used the antibodies and won the war. The Scientists then used this knowledge to keep the Defense Department active all the time. They made up different mock attacks, using different tactics that would generate more and more antibodies, thus making The Body's Defense Department stronger and stronger. Some of these attacks included half-dead microbes, some included tiny cells that looked and acted like microbes, but were actually just robots made in factories. The scientists also found out that not all microbes were The Body's enemies. Some were friendly as well, so they disguised the friendly microbes and sent them as enemies, thus enabling the Defense Department to practice. 

So all these microbes that the scientists use to strengthen The Body's defense department are known as Vaccines. Once The Body is introduced to the Vaccine, the Defense Department factories make more antibodies that then help fight off when the real microbes attack. So now, whenever Mommy and Daddy take you for a vaccine, and Doctor Aunty takes out a needle, don't be afraid. The kingdom of Your Body is only getting more weapons to fight the dangerous enemies. Despite that, sometimes the microbes still attack The Body, but the scientists of the Human Being Dynasty are so smart, they have made some other special weapons known as Antibiotics, which are medicines that help The Body fight microbes. But I will tell you the story of Antibiotics some other time.