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I'm not doubting this statement, but just am curious about the physiological machinations of it, how does a vaccine (especially one designed for a different mut

I'm not doubting this statement, but just am curious about the physiological machinations of it, how does a vaccine (especially one designed for a different mutation) help prevent the severe symptoms of the disease? Like whats going on in the body to make that happen?

shigawire 5y ago
Vaccine strengthens your immune response. You get infected. Your body is better able to slow the rapid multiplication of the virus in your body. You have less virus fucking up your insides and thus are less sick.
hajile 5y ago
Quick answer is the last 3 paragraphs. When your body responds to a virus, it creates many kinds of antibodies against its many constituent components. This is why new CDC studies show that natural immunity is far better than the vaccine which creates ONE antibody against one part of the virus (the spike protein). A virus can mutate in a lot of ways, but usually not at the same time. If your body has 50 different antibodies against different parts of Delta, when Omicron comes along with a bunch of changes, you'll get sick while your body develops additional antibodies, but your body will still keep the disease from multiplying too quickly with the antibodies that still work (or partially work). The vaccines force the creation of a specific spike protein either through messenger RNA (pfizer/moderna) or through infection with a different virus (Johnson & Johnson -- for the record, the only two other vaccines like this were emergency vaccines approved for ebola in 2016 and 2019) or a more recent one that delivers attenuated virus (but was denied by the FDA because they "had enough vaccines"). Your body sees a massive jump in these spike proteins and marshals a big immune response that floods your system with antibodies against this protein (myocarditis and some other symptoms are believed to be caused by these antibodies attacking your body's very similar ACE2 receptors). When you catch the disease with all these antibodies flooding your system, they can slow the disease down while your body creates the rest of the antibodies to finish the disease off. Delta had a moderately different spike protein, but the antibodies against the original spike still seem to work at reduced effectiveness which is why so many vaccinated people caught delta. Omicron has an even more different protein that almost completely evades the antibodies which is why everyone is catching it. So why does the vaccine reduce death? I'll say that "with covid" and "from covid" are a real thing (even the great Dr. Fauci has said this on national TV). Not being boosted is also sufficient to get you on the unvaxxed list (among other things). Politics and political pressure on places like the CDC further muddy the waters. That aside, exponential growth is important here. If you are unvaccinated (and aren't one of the 10-15% of people who somehow already have partial immunity), the virus enters your body and begins multiplying. If you have 1,000 viruses in the droplet, they invade cells and become (for example), 10,000 and then 100,000 and then 1M within just three doublings. Now, let's say that the antibodies are just 20% effective. Only 800 viruses can invade creating 8,000 copies. Of those, only 6,400 survive creating 64,000 viruses. On our third round, only 51,200 are left creating 512,000 viruses. After 3 rounds, the vaccinated person has HALF the viruses in their system. They'll still have symptoms, but they will be nowhere as severe. This gives your body a lot more time to create the rest of the necessary antibodies and fight off the disease and prevent severe reactions or death.

shigawire 5y ago

Vaccine strengthens your immune response. You get infected. Your body is better able to slow the rapid multiplication of the virus in your body. You have less virus fucking up your insides and thus are less sick.

hajile 5y ago

Quick answer is the last 3 paragraphs. When your body responds to a virus, it creates many kinds of antibodies against its many constituent components. This is why new CDC studies show that natural immunity is far better than the vaccine which creates ONE antibody against one part of the virus (the spike protein). A virus can mutate in a lot of ways, but usually not at the same time. If your body has 50 different antibodies against different parts of Delta, when Omicron comes along with a bunch of changes, you'll get sick while your body develops additional antibodies, but your body will still keep the disease from multiplying too quickly with the antibodies that still work (or partially work). The vaccines force the creation of a specific spike protein either through messenger RNA (pfizer/moderna) or through infection with a different virus (Johnson & Johnson -- for the record, the only two other vaccines like this were emergency vaccines approved for ebola in 2016 and 2019) or a more recent one that delivers attenuated virus (but was denied by the FDA because they "had enough vaccines"). Your body sees a massive jump in these spike proteins and marshals a big immune response that floods your system with antibodies against this protein (myocarditis and some other symptoms are believed to be caused by these antibodies attacking your body's very similar ACE2 receptors). When you catch the disease with all these antibodies flooding your system, they can slow the disease down while your body creates the rest of the antibodies to finish the disease off. Delta had a moderately different spike protein, but the antibodies against the original spike still seem to work at reduced effectiveness which is why so many vaccinated people caught delta. Omicron has an even more different protein that almost completely evades the antibodies which is why everyone is catching it. So why does the vaccine reduce death? I'll say that "with covid" and "from covid" are a real thing (even the great Dr. Fauci has said this on national TV). Not being boosted is also sufficient to get you on the unvaxxed list (among other things). Politics and political pressure on places like the CDC further muddy the waters. That aside, exponential growth is important here. If you are unvaccinated (and aren't one of the 10-15% of people who somehow already have partial immunity), the virus enters your body and begins multiplying. If you have 1,000 viruses in the droplet, they invade cells and become (for example), 10,000 and then 100,000 and then 1M within just three doublings. Now, let's say that the antibodies are just 20% effective. Only 800 viruses can invade creating 8,000 copies. Of those, only 6,400 survive creating 64,000 viruses. On our third round, only 51,200 are left creating 512,000 viruses. After 3 rounds, the vaccinated person has HALF the viruses in their system. They'll still have symptoms, but they will be nowhere as severe. This gives your body a lot more time to create the rest of the necessary antibodies and fight off the disease and prevent severe reactions or death.