Flauros said:
ShadowKatt said:
Yeah....I'm a bit wary of this. The human immune system when it's working properly doesn't need to be vaccinated(much. While it is entirely possible to survive things like ebola and polio, the mortality rates are high enough that it's worth the risk of vaccination). However, these vaccinations are no substitute for the actual first-hand experience with the bacteria and viruses that make us sick. And I'm sure there are going to be people that are going to quote me saying "You just want people to suffer!", but the fact is that you develop immunity by getting sick. Your body learns the disease and learns to combat it with W blood cells, lymphocytes, and antibodies. Vaccinations introduce a weakened version of whatever disease it is and your body only learns to fight the weakened version, leaving you vulnerable when the actual virus shows up. Furthermore, vaccinations only really work on those that already have a strong immune system. Introduced into the body of someone with an already compromised immune system, it can be just as deadly as giving a healthy person the full virus.
I'm not saying that vaccine research isn't important, but I worry that people are going to treat this as a magic bullet and then we're going to have an epidemic when a new strain of influenza comes out, one that's more resistant/antagonistic or different enough for the vaccine to not apply.
how do you think vaccines, especially THIS vaccine, works?
The same way every vaccine works. And since I know that I will never be taken credibly on this site and wikipedia is, here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine
However, here's the tl:dr. A vaccine works by infecting you with a weakened or dead version of the bacteria/virus under controlled conditions. It makes you sick on a smaller scale so that your body recognises the bigger infection when it comes. It essentially says when the blue bacteria comes, counter it with blue antibodies. This is a first line of defense, however vaccines do NOT, that is, they do
NOT guaruntee that you cannot be infected by the same bacteria virus even if you are vaccinated. Your body learns to fight the disease off, but in a smaller and weaker state. This is good for a simple chance encounter, touching a contiminated doorknob, shaking a contaminated hand, however if you are, say, sitting next to a contiminate person on a plane for a few hours, your body is not prepared for the full strength infection on that scale.
This vaccine, according to the article, uses a modified virus encoded with the protiens for pretty much every known strain of influenza, however it does not(and cannot) safeguard you against future different strains, and in that way it is exactly the same as your own immune system. Here's a fun fact: How many times have you had a cold in your lifetime? Each one was a different strain of rhinovirus [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhinovirus]. You got sick, you fought it off, and your body remembered it through Immunological Memory [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immune_system#Immunological_memory]. So this vaccine cannot prepare you for any future versions of the influenza virus, because your body has not experienced and learned it yet.
My problem isn't with the vaccine, it's with people. People will believe that this vaccine is a magic bullet of some sort, and they will forget about, statisticly speaking, one of the deadliest viruses to ever roam the face of the earth.
