- Joined
- Oct 24, 2011
- Messages
- 23,083
- Reaction score
- 10,781
- Location
- Where faults collide
- Website
- doggedlywriting.blogspot.com
This little article is scientific in nature, but I wanted to share it here because it is relevant to Covid-19.
https://www.npr.org/sections/health...e-special-sauce-that-makes-some-vaccines-work
People often ask how, since there's still uncertainty whether people recovered from Covid-19 generally produce sufficient antibodies for long-term protection, how a vaccine could possibly work. The answer (aside from possibly administering multiple boosters) is adjuvants, which are molecules that significantly boost the immune response when one is exposed to an antigen. Adjuvants made a big difference in the efficacy of shingles vaccines, for instance, with the new vaccine producing 90% protection, even in the elderly (compared to the earlier vaccine, which my mother took, that only is about 50% effective, so she got to be one of the lucky ones who got shingles anyway). Unfortunately, only a few adjuvants are currently known, and they can be propitiatory (one down side of the for-profit sector being responsible for vaccine manufacture and development).
Because of adjuvants (and other technologies, such as being able to make vaccines with concentrated antigens), vaccines can actually provide better and longer-lasting protection than catching and recovering from an infectious disease "naturally." I am guessing the folks racing to produce a Covid-19 vaccine are hoping this will be the case.
Having said this, there are a few worries I have. Sometimes adjuvants can cause unpleasant side effects. I didn't experience more than a slightly sore arm and some mild fatigue for a day after my Shigella shingles vaccines, but some volunteers are reporting feeling mildly ill after the Covid-19 vaccine second booster. The other is that upon occasion there are issues or mistakes with new vaccines, and rushing them into development could mean we miss some of the longer-term or rarer side effects.
We have, in essence, on chance to get this vaccine right for a country as "flighty" and "volatile" as the US is with regards to vaccination. Some people won't get any vaccines ever, insisting that it's always safer to risk the disease. Those people are beyond reach, unfortunately, and the only thing you can really do is impose maximum quarantine for the duration of the pandemic if they refuse to comply. There are others, though, who will be vaccinated if they think it's "necessary" and if they are sure it is safe, but they skip vaccines for diseases they don't think of as serious (like influenza), or they question the need for boosters. They often express concerns about "overvaccination" or posit that getting a disease "naturally" produces stronger immunity or simply makes one's immune system stronger somehow (when they opposite may actually be true).
If the Covid-19 vaccine that first becomes available in the US does turn out to have issues, or to be less effective than we'd hoped, getting the "vaccine flighty" on board will be hard. Or heck, it doesn't even have to be our vaccine. If Russia pushes one even faster, and it turns out to be a disaster, that could make Americans shy of a very different vaccine, even if it's much safer.
This is a situation I am watching with interest and with concern.
https://www.npr.org/sections/health...e-special-sauce-that-makes-some-vaccines-work
People often ask how, since there's still uncertainty whether people recovered from Covid-19 generally produce sufficient antibodies for long-term protection, how a vaccine could possibly work. The answer (aside from possibly administering multiple boosters) is adjuvants, which are molecules that significantly boost the immune response when one is exposed to an antigen. Adjuvants made a big difference in the efficacy of shingles vaccines, for instance, with the new vaccine producing 90% protection, even in the elderly (compared to the earlier vaccine, which my mother took, that only is about 50% effective, so she got to be one of the lucky ones who got shingles anyway). Unfortunately, only a few adjuvants are currently known, and they can be propitiatory (one down side of the for-profit sector being responsible for vaccine manufacture and development).
Because of adjuvants (and other technologies, such as being able to make vaccines with concentrated antigens), vaccines can actually provide better and longer-lasting protection than catching and recovering from an infectious disease "naturally." I am guessing the folks racing to produce a Covid-19 vaccine are hoping this will be the case.
Having said this, there are a few worries I have. Sometimes adjuvants can cause unpleasant side effects. I didn't experience more than a slightly sore arm and some mild fatigue for a day after my Shigella shingles vaccines, but some volunteers are reporting feeling mildly ill after the Covid-19 vaccine second booster. The other is that upon occasion there are issues or mistakes with new vaccines, and rushing them into development could mean we miss some of the longer-term or rarer side effects.
We have, in essence, on chance to get this vaccine right for a country as "flighty" and "volatile" as the US is with regards to vaccination. Some people won't get any vaccines ever, insisting that it's always safer to risk the disease. Those people are beyond reach, unfortunately, and the only thing you can really do is impose maximum quarantine for the duration of the pandemic if they refuse to comply. There are others, though, who will be vaccinated if they think it's "necessary" and if they are sure it is safe, but they skip vaccines for diseases they don't think of as serious (like influenza), or they question the need for boosters. They often express concerns about "overvaccination" or posit that getting a disease "naturally" produces stronger immunity or simply makes one's immune system stronger somehow (when they opposite may actually be true).
If the Covid-19 vaccine that first becomes available in the US does turn out to have issues, or to be less effective than we'd hoped, getting the "vaccine flighty" on board will be hard. Or heck, it doesn't even have to be our vaccine. If Russia pushes one even faster, and it turns out to be a disaster, that could make Americans shy of a very different vaccine, even if it's much safer.
This is a situation I am watching with interest and with concern.