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To discuss the immunization debate we must first define exactly what immunization is. A virus consists of a few strands of DNA or RNA with a protein “body.” The coat of the virus has certain proteins (visualize them as legs) where the virus can attach to a cell. The virus searches out cells that have the right “landing pads” (so to speak) that allows the protein legs to attach the body to your cell. When it finds one of these so-called activation sites to land on, the virus latches onto it and injects its DNA or RNA into the cell's “command center” (nucleus). The virus inserts its genetic material into the cell's nucleus and instructs various “cellular machines” to produce more viruses. The cell produces thousands of these viruses until the cell can't hold any more and the membrane explodes, letting out the viruses and allowing them to plague other cells. Therefore, it is possible to get sick from only a few viruses (as we see later, this means immunizations can actually make people sick).
When the body fights a virus, certain cells so-called “white blood cells” (T-cells and B-cells) detect the presence of the virus and release antibodies that are specially designed to block the protein "legs" of the viruses. With the virus unable to land on a cell and breed, the white blood cells then surround and destroy it.
A vaccine resembles either the virus or bacteria. Viruses are placed into the body, but they are only the protein coat, not the actual DNA or RNA (there are a few exceptions in which partial amounts of the genetic material is also inserted). The body produces the right antibodies to destroy the virus, and then remembers how it made them in the case of future “attacks.” For instance, dead measles may be put in, antibodies are then created, dead measles are destroyed, live measles eventually infect body, body remembers what antibodies to produce, it produces them and kills the measles). Your health depends on how fast your body can figure out what antibodies to produce. That is why vaccination is crucial.
Without vaccinations, your body must learn exactly how to fight the living disease, which it may not have time to do before the bodies defenses are too weak to fight it effectively. With vaccinations, the body learns from a harmless version. The vaccination may have side-effects as the immune system responds to the dead virus/bacteria (much like swelling when you are cut) but very rarely do vaccinations have extended effects.
So yes, a vaccination can conceivably cause someone to get sick or experience discomfort. In extreme cases people die. Unfortunately, since nothing is perfect and everyone is different, that is just a chance that must be taken. Many more people would die without the vaccination than with it.
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