Vaccination is beneficial for humanity

The opponent keeps stating this mere and deniable fact: that vaccines do not "work". By do not work, we can assume that they do not save the lives of any people, or at least, provide no protection to diseases. However, in an article by Times Magazine, vaccinations is said to have save 33,000 lives and 14 million disease cases per year. In another article published by the US National of Medicine, 6.4 million lives and US$ 2 billion could be saved if vaccines are given. The opponent says that vaccines contain many harmful material that might cause a reaction, but over 50 years, there has been only 400,000 cases reported of vaccine reaction (not necessarily death); that is 8,000 per year, and many of these cases were "special cases" and were cured. The opponent says that "We risk human lives by giving our children vaccination". However, isn't it more of a risk to not give our children vaccination? I would like to return to the opponent's points about tetanus toxoid: although there are some reactions, there is yet to be a case where those affected died. The opponent says that "vaccination will put our children into danger". But through my previous arguments, I have clearly stated that vaccination may have some minor side-effects, but is it really worth it to let our children go through their childhood without any form of immunity until they become exposed with that particular pathogen (which by then could be too late)? Con states that "vaccination has not attributed to the elimination of epidemics". This is true; Pro does not wish to rebut this fact. But what pro wishes to say is that vaccination has attributed to the elimination of a disease. Polio, for example, is a good example of this. Through proper sanitation, polio cases dropped little by little. However, when Dr. Jonas Salk created his vaccine, polio cases dropped to almost zero in many parts of the world. Polio is still in endemic in several places in the world, because in those parts of the world, especially Nigeria, many have missed their OPV vaccination because of religious reasons. This is a pattern in many places of the world, and frankly, Polio is still evident in those places. Places, like Afghanistan and Pakistan, still have polio endemics, because the polio vaccinations have been missed, allowing the poliovirus to linger on upon the people of these respective nations. Is that not proof? Where Polio Vaccines have been introduced, Polio has been completely eradicated; where it has been introduced but still refused, it lingers on. Is that no sign that polio vaccines are effective? I would also like to repeat my previous case. Formaldehyde are only used to deactivate the pathogen, and are removed before the vaccination is packaged. If a baby receives all of the recommended vaccines, the baby would receive only 4mg of Aluminium, compared to the 120mg from drinking breast milk and a formula. The usage of Monosodium Glutamate has been stated as "safe for the general population" by Food Standards of New Zealand and Australia, and therefore, the opponent's claims that this could have an effect isn't true. Mercury is used in vaccines as thiomersal, and there are no convincing cases of harm ever done. In fact, this was called the "Greatest Medical Hoax" by a 2011 Medical Journal. Because vaccinations have been proven to eradicate diseases, or at least help eradicate diseases (such as polio and measles), and eradicate many harmful pathogens from ever returning to humanity, is why vaccination continues to benefit the world. Millions of lives have been saved, and more continue to do so. There are some downsides to vaccination, and many controversies, but it is still undeniable, even to many people, that vaccination benefits humanity. That, in itself, is undeniable. Think about the world without vaccination? Would we have come this far, or would we still be stuck in the harms of olden days? Would we have eradicated Polio and MMR without vaccination? Would we, or could we, have progressed so far without vaccination? No. It is because of these reasons, and many other reasons I am unable to present, vaccination benefits humanity. Therefore, I urge you to vote pro, as there is a plethora of facts to rebuke many of the claims made by the opponent. I would like to thank the opponent for this interesting debate, and wish him the best of luck in his next argument. Citations: http://en.wikipedia.org... http://www.cdc.gov... http://en.wikipedia.org... http://content.time.com... http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov...