Self-study
Physician: Stories of people developing serious health problems shortly after receiving vaccinations have given rise to the question of whether vaccination is safe. ███ ████ ██ █████ ███████ ███ █████ ████ ████ ███ ██ █████ ███ ████████ ████ ████████ ██ ██████ █████ ██████████ █████ █████ ██ ██ ██ ██ ████████ ████ ████ ████ ███████ ██████ ████████ ██████ ██ ███████████ ███████ █████ █████████ █████████████
Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The author concludes that we don’t need to be concerned by reports of people developing health problems shortly after receiving vaccinations. This is because there are a lot of people who get vaccinated every year, and we would naturally expect some of them to develop health problems by coincidence shortly after getting vaccinated.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that the rate of developing health problems isn’t higher shortly after getting vaccinated than it is before getting vaccinated.
4.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ █████ ████ ██████████ ███ ███████████ █████████
a
For the most █████ ███████ ██ ██████ ██████████ ███████ ██████ ████████ ███████ █████ █████████ ████████████ ███████ ████████ ████ ████ ████████ ███████████
If anything, this might undermine the argument by showing that certain vaccines are more associated with health problems than others. That could suggest something besides coincidence accounts for the health problems with these newer vaccines.
b
Some of the █████████ ████ ████████ ███ ████████ ██ ███████ ████ ██████ ██ ████ ████ ████ ██ ██████ ███ ███ ███████████ ████ ███ ████████ ██ ████████ █████ ██████████
This questions the need for getting a vaccine. But this doesn’t help suggest that vaccines aren’t causing health problems.
c
People are no ████ ███████ ██ ████████ ██ ███████ ███████ ██████ ████████ ███████ █████ █████████ ████████████ ████ ███████ ██████ █████████ █████████████
This shows there’s no correlation between vaccines and higher rates of health problems in the period shortly after vaccinations. If vaccines really did cause the health problems, we’d expect an increase in the rate of health problems shortly after vaccination.
Plausibility
Plausibility
Presenting evidence that corroborates (in Strengthen) or conflicts (in Weaken) with the author's hypothesized explanation or the predictions that follow from that explanation.
d
The health problems ████ ████ ██████ ████ █████████ ███████ █████ █████████ ████████████ ████ ████ ████ ███████ ████ ███ ██████ ████████ ████ ███ ████████ ████ ████████ ██ ████████
The comparative severity of health problems after a vaccine and problems the vaccine is designed to prevent is irrelevant. This issue relates to whether one should take the vaccine. But it doesn’t help suggest the vaccine doesn’t cause health problems.
e
In a few █████ ██ █████ ██████ █████████ ███████ ██████ ████████ ███████ █████ ██████ █████ ████████████ █████ ████████ ████ █████████ ██████████ ██ ███████████ ███ ████ █████ ██████████ ██ ██ ███ ██ ███ ████████████
If anything, this suggests that we should be open to a causal connection between vaccines and the health problems. But we’re trying to support the claim that vaccines are not likely to be the cause of the health problems people develop after vaccination.