Vaccination against smallpox is worth it, in case you were wondering.

I mean look, just look to Ben Franklin. He lost a child over it.

This looks like a classic case of a Type I Error (a false positive) vs. a Type II Error (a false negative).

You can give a vaccine to a child that is never going to get sick, or you can not give a vaccine to a child that was going to get sick.

I choose to err on the former, even if there are consequences.

The video I have linked below is a great explanation why – pardon the language.

And you know what? Ben Franklin basically said the same thing.

In 1736 I lost one of my sons, a fine boy of four years old, by the small-pox, taken in a common way. I long regretted bitterly, and still regret that I had not given it to him by inoculation. This I mention for the sake of parents who omit that operation, on the supposition that they should never forgive themselves if a child died under it; my example showing that the regret may be the same either way, and that, therefore, the safer should be chosen.

-Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin