Critical Reasoning

Several inexpensive new vaccines have recently been developed that may help eliminate malaria, a disease that is believed to kill more than 2 million people worldwide each year. All of these vaccines, however, can sometimes produce acute, albeit short-lived and rarely fatal, side effects, the most unpleasant of which are intense diarrhea and severe skin reactions. Countries with the highest incidence of malaria should begin implementing as soon as possible a vaccination program using the vaccine that has shown the lowest incidence of severe skin reactions as a side effect.
Each of the following, if true, gives support to the recommendation above, EXCEPT:

(A) The severe skin reactions caused by the new vaccines are rated as slightly more unpleasant by those who have experienced them as compared to the intense diarrhea.
(B) The new vaccine that has shown the lowest incidence of severe skin reactions as a side effect costs approximately the same per dose as the other new vaccines.
(C) The diarrhea that is a side effect of these vaccines is no more life threatening than the skin reactions that are a side effect of these vaccines.
(D) In treating patients with intense diarrhea as a side effect of one these vaccines, it is sometimes necessary to resort to I.V. hydration.
(E) All of the recently developed new vaccines have shown the same incidence of intense diarrhea as a side effect.

Source : Kaplan
OA : D
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chetan86 wrote:Several inexpensive new vaccines have recently been developed that may help eliminate malaria, a disease that is believed to kill more than 2 million people worldwide each year. All of these vaccines, however, can sometimes produce acute, albeit short-lived and rarely fatal, side effects, the most unpleasant of which are intense diarrhea and severe skin reactions. Countries with the highest incidence of malaria should begin implementing as soon as possible a vaccination program using the vaccine that has shown the lowest incidence of severe skin reactions as a side effect.
Each of the following, if true, gives support to the recommendation above, EXCEPT:

(A) The severe skin reactions caused by the new vaccines are rated as slightly more unpleasant by those who have experienced them as compared to the intense diarrhea.
(B) The new vaccine that has shown the lowest incidence of severe skin reactions as a side effect costs approximately the same per dose as the other new vaccines.
(C) The diarrhea that is a side effect of these vaccines is no more life threatening than the skin reactions that are a side effect of these vaccines.
(D) In treating patients with intense diarrhea as a side effect of one these vaccines, it is sometimes necessary to resort to I.V. hydration.
(E) All of the recently developed new vaccines have shown the same incidence of intense diarrhea as a side effect.

Source : Kaplan
OA : D

This was a little funny, because I was looking for something that would be clearly counter to the recommendation, but there is not really such a choice. Still there is a way to decide.

A) This supports the recommendation because from what it says it sounds as if avoiding the skin reactions is more important than avoiding the diarrhea.

B) If the one with the lowest incidence of skin reactions costs the same as the others, then holding all other things equal, it makes sense to choose the one with the lowest skin reactions. So this is at least indirectly supportive of the recommendation.

C) Is this supportive? Hmm. I am not sure that it's all that supportive, but it does indicate that there is no more reason to worry about diarrhea than there is to worry about skin reactions. So at least it's not counter to the recommendation, and maybe in a way supports making a decision by ignoring the diarrhea aspect and focusing on the skin reaction aspect of the side effects.

D) This is almost irrelevant. Ok, so sometimes they need to use IV hydration to deal with the diarrhea. This certainly is not supportive of the recommendation. To the degree that it is relevant, it may be a reason to question the merit of the recommendation, because it implies that there are costs to dealing the diarrhea issue, both in health and financial terms. So maybe this is it.

E) This indicates that there is not any reason to choose vaccines on the basis of degree of diarrhea side effects, because those are the same for all the vaccines. Thus if there are differences in skin reaction side effects, those differences stand out and therefore considering them is important. So that in a way supports the recommendation.

Except for one choice, all of them have some relevance to the recommendation and in some way directly or indirectly support it. That one choice is either irrelevant or slightly counter to the recommendation.

Choose D.

Marty Murray wrote:

chetan86 wrote:Several inexpensive new vaccines have recently been developed that may help eliminate malaria, a disease that is believed to kill more than 2 million people worldwide each year. All of these vaccines, however, can sometimes produce acute, albeit short-lived and rarely fatal, side effects, the most unpleasant of which are intense diarrhea and severe skin reactions. Countries with the highest incidence of malaria should begin implementing as soon as possible a vaccination program using the vaccine that has shown the lowest incidence of severe skin reactions as a side effect.
Each of the following, if true, gives support to the recommendation above, EXCEPT:

(A) The severe skin reactions caused by the new vaccines are rated as slightly more unpleasant by those who have experienced them as compared to the intense diarrhea.
(B) The new vaccine that has shown the lowest incidence of severe skin reactions as a side effect costs approximately the same per dose as the other new vaccines.
(C) The diarrhea that is a side effect of these vaccines is no more life threatening than the skin reactions that are a side effect of these vaccines.
(D) In treating patients with intense diarrhea as a side effect of one these vaccines, it is sometimes necessary to resort to I.V. hydration.
(E) All of the recently developed new vaccines have shown the same incidence of intense diarrhea as a side effect.

Source : Kaplan
OA : D

This was a little funny, because I was looking for something that would be clearly counter to the recommendation, but there is not really such a choice.

A) This supports the recommendation because it sounds as if avoiding the skin reactions is more important than avoiding the diarrhea.

B) If the one with the lowest incidence of skin reactions costs the same as the others, then holding all other things equal, it makes sense to choose the one with the lowest skin reactions. So this is at least indirectly supportive of the recommendation.

C) Is this supportive? Hmm. I am not sure that it's all that supportive, but it does indicate that there is no more reason to worry about diarrhea than there is to worry about skin reactions. So at least it's not counter to the recommendation, and maybe in a way supports making a decision by ignoring the diarrhea aspect and focusing on the skin reaction aspect of the side effects.

D) This is almost irrelevant. Ok, so sometimes they need to use IV hydration to deal with the diarrhea. This certainly is not supportive of the recommendation. To the degree it is relevant, it may even be considered to weaken the support of the recommendation, because it sounds as if there are costs to handling the diarrhea, both in health and financial terms. So maybe this is it.

E) This indicates that there is not any reason to choose vaccines on the basis of degree of diarrhea side effects, because those are the same for all the vaccines. Thus if there are differences in skin reaction side effects, those differences stand alone in terms of side effects and therefore considering them is important. So that in a way supports the recommendation.

Except for one choice, all of them have some relevance to the recommendation and in some way directly or indirectly support it. That one choice is either irrelevant or slightly counter to the recommendation.

Choose D.

Hi Marty,

Thanks a lot for you reply.
This question was difficult for me. Now I am clear why each options is correct or wrong.

Thanks!!

A similar CR:

https://www.beatthegmat.com/700-allergic ... 59876.html

GMATGuruNY wrote:A similar CR:

https://www.beatthegmat.com/700-allergic ... 59876.html

Hi Mitch,

Thanks a lot for the link.