Physician: Stories of people developing serious health problems shortly after receiving vaccinations have given rise ...

Lucas on January 27, 2020

Or is it C?

asmadding on January 28, 2020

Hi @Lucas,

This question is asking you to determine which answer choice "most strengthens" the argument. When answering this type of question, it can be helpful to think of where the argument is weakest and how it could be strengthened.

Answer (A) is incorrect because the difference between newly introduced vaccines and old vaccines is not relevant. The argument talks about all vaccines as a group, so if there's a risk of getting sick after one type that still means there's a risk to getting sick after a vaccine. This doesn't support the argument that this isn't concerning.

Answer (B) is incorrect because it is irrelevant. This is talking about the illnesses vaccines are used against, not the possibility of getting sick from a vaccine. If anything, this weakens the argument.

Answer (C) is correct because it tells us that people are no more likely to get sick after vaccines than before them. This supports the idea that there is no reason to fear stories of people getting sick after getting a vaccine because this just means its a random and normal occurrence, likely unrelated to the vaccine.

Answer (D) is incorrect because it would actually weaken the argument. This supports the idea that vaccines are bad which is not what the argument says.

Answer (E) is incorrect because it is irrelevant. The argument is about vaccines and this answer choice is about medicines. We can't just assume that these are related or that they would have similar effects. Additionally, even if we assume that medicines and vaccines are similar, this answer choice would actually weaken the argument because it would tell us that getting sick is due to the medicine while the argument is trying to say that getting sick is not due to the vaccines.