(lively music) - The risks are actually very low.

Vaccines are well tested.

They're approved through multiple different mechanisms of making sure they're appropriate.

I'm Dr. DeAnn Bullock.

I'm the emergency Department medical director here at Nashville General Hospital.

Vaccines are actually the inactive form of a disease and so when we are vaccinated, our body forms what's known as antibodies and it's kind of like a defense system that the body makes against the vaccine that's been given to them.

So if you get a flu vaccine, when you actually do get flu, your body has developed a defense mechanism so that you don't get as ill and potentially don't die from certain diseases.

Sometimes people think that, well, if I get the vaccine, I'm not gonna get the disease.

It doesn't necessarily mean that you won't get the disease.

You can still, but it's really to develop the defense against that disease and make you stronger in fighting it.

Some of the most common ones, and these will develop over the years, there's plenty that have been developed in my lifetime really around measles, rubella, hepatitis, meningitis and we really wanna utilize those across populations to really prevent the spread and the prevalence of that disease within a community.

Common misconceptions about vaccines are widespread.

Some people think that vaccines are harmful, that they contain abnormal chemicals.

Some people think that they'll cause disease.

The best way we can really address those misconceptions is really educating ourselves.

We can do that by reaching out to trusted friends and family, trusted physicians, trusted healthcare systems and then trusted websites on the internet.

Vaccines matter to keep us healthy, keep us safe, keep us from getting very ill, keep us from dying and keep disease from spreading across populations, communities, and even countries.

The risks are actually very low.

Vaccines are well tested.

They're approved through multiple different mechanisms of making sure they're appropriate.

The most common side effects are really gonna be a sore arm, maybe a little low grade temperature.

So there's lots of different resources but I think really the biggest piece is education and knowing that in vaccines that need a series or a booster, that one and done is not necessarily always gonna be the best course.