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Most childhood vaccines are 90–99% effective in preventing disease. Side effects are rarely serious.
About 100 new prescription or over-the-counter drugs come into the U.S. market every year.
Vampire bats have a natural anticoagulant in their saliva that permits continuous bleeding after they painlessly open a wound with their incisors. This capillary blood does not cause any significant blood loss to their victims.
As the western states of America were settled, pioneers often had to drink rancid water from ponds and other sources. This often resulted in chronic diarrhea, causing many cases of dehydration and death that could have been avoided if clean water had been available.
Medication errors are more common among seriously ill patients than with those with minor conditions.