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Can someone explain the use of the word "vaccine" here? My layman's understanding of medical industry is that a vaccine is only useful against a "virus". Has t
by RobertRoberts 4y ago
Can someone explain the use of the word "vaccine" here?
My layman's understanding of medical industry is that a vaccine is only useful against a "virus". Has the word "vaccine" turned into a generic word for "medicine" in many cases?
They state "vaccine development strategies" as their motivations, but seem to skip over the idea what the actual definition of a vaccine is, but then allude to it by stating "drug-vaccine conjugation" after already stating (as fact) there is such a thing as "METH vaccine development strategies".
Maybe I am just too much an outsider, but the past 20 years I feel like a vaccine can cure more than it could in the past...
- jovial_cavalier 4y agoThe word has no meaning anymore.
- dylan604 4y agoI had the same issue when reading the title. It's like the skincare community's use of the word serum. Just repurpose, say it with authority, everyone will go along
- thehappypm 4y agoThe word has changed in meaning. It used to be virus-oriented, but that has shifted; after all not all diseases are viral, such as Lyme, which once had a vax. Now it really means a substance that can train the immune system to attack an antigen. Which is much broader but fundamentally the same.
- collyw 4y agoNah, it's been updated. It doesn't need to attack an antigen, just "produce an immune response". It doesn't matter if that immune response is for a virus that is long extinct, as long as the "vaccine" makes your body produce some antibodies.
- phonypc 4y agoIt has never been exclusively virus oriented. Foundational work on vaccines was done before viruses were discovered, and many early vaccines were for bacterial pathogens. The definition is now being expanded beyond infectious diseases I suppose.