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Aren't viral vaccinations typically a "dead" strain of the virus? Although I don't really understand what, exactly, that means.
by Wistar 7y ago
Aren't viral vaccinations typically a "dead" strain of the virus? Although I don't really understand what, exactly, that means.
- totalZero 7y agoIn that type of vaccine, it's exactly as you say. They kill the virus with heat or chemicals, then introduce dead virus into the body. The human body learns the structures on the surface of the virus, recognizes those structures as bad, and releases antibodies if they ever reappear. It's like someone showing you a dead man and saying "he is survived by an identical twin brother that is wanted for murder."
- TazeTSchnitzel 7y agoThat is one kind of vaccination, but it's not the only kind, right?
- Wistar 7y agoI dug around and found vaccines.gov which says that there are four vaccine types: • Live-attenuated vaccines: these use a weakened (or attenuated) form of the germ that causes a disease. • Inactivated vaccines: these use the killed version of the germ that causes a disease. • Subunit, recombinant, polysaccharide, and conjugate vaccines: these use specific pieces of the germ — like its protein, sugar, or capsid (a casing around the germ). • Toxoid vaccines: these use a toxin (harmful product) made by the germ that causes a disease. They create immunity to the parts of the germ that cause a disease instead of the germ itself. https://www.vaccines.gov/basics/types https://www.vaccines.gov/basics/types
- ashildr 7y agoThis old process takes long and needs a lot of ressources. Culturing a virus is slow. The new vaccine will likely be a protein that provokes an immune reaction to some essential part of the virus and it will be made by more effective means like genetic modification of eg. a pet microbe or yeast. No egg as a side dish I guess.