4 ms·

If that were true, you would think it would be true for any immune response, even ones from actual infections.

• sethammons 3y ago
  > the adjuvant component in vaccines which enhances the learned immune response ^^ is not present in regular immune responses.
  • hhjinks 3y ago
    That makes sense. I thought they were referring to the enhanced immune response itself.
  • pfannkuchen 3y ago
    Right, IIUC the adjuvant being present alongside the e.g. inactivated virus causes the immune system to react more strongly because the adjuvant is a harmful substance (though in small enough quantity that it is harmless overall, of course). The obvious question is - how does the adjuvant specifically target the inactivated virus while avoiding having the same effect on anything else in the body? AFAIK the adjuvant substance itself is not chemically complex in a way that it would have the ability to target at all. Can someone explain how this works?