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AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
I don’t understand one thing about the terminology. Aren’t vaccines for prevention, and in this case it’s more like a treatment? Or am I misunderstanding the meaning of the term vaccine?
kibiz0r@midwest.social 1 month ago
Vaccines can be prophylactic or therapeutic. In this case, it’s a post-exposure prophylactic, because it’s administered after exposure to a pathogen but before the disease.
AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
What makes the vaccine more effective than actual exposure to the actual virus? I tried googling but couldn’t find an eli5 version
kibiz0r@midwest.social 1 month ago
The vaccine only contains the part of the virus that trigger an immune response, not the parts that take over your cells and wreak havoc on your body.
In addition, the post-exposure version of the hep b vaccine will contain a dose of immunoglobulin that gives temporary immunity to the disease. So it’s like training wheels while your body starts to produce its own immune response.
sga@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
not all vaccines. some vaccines (most olden ones) were just differnt similar or weaker or less potent strains, which while still infected you, you get some immunity because your body made “ammunition” against the actual threat.
then there are vaccines like mrna vaccines, where we find the mrna sequence that enocdes for specific protiens, for example, some surface protien. this protien is a part of virus, but alone the protien is pretty much useless. your body still sees that their is a foreign protein, and builds ammunition against this protien. when the actual protien with the specific virus comes, our body sees the same virus, and uses the same ammunition.
SnekZone@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 month ago
I think most therapeutic vaccines just actually give you the necessary antibodies to go up against the infection.
“Patients affected with chronic viral infections are administered with therapeutic vaccines, as their immune system is not able to produce enough efficient antibodies.”
moobythegoldensock@infosec.pub 1 month ago
Would you prefer to test your smoke alarms by:
The entire point of the vaccine is to prevent the virus. If you wait until you’ve been exposed to the virus, you’ve defeated the entire purpose of the vaccine.
AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
In the context of this discussion, you HAVE been exposed to the virus. To use your analogy, you’re hitting the test button when your house is already on fire. Hence the reason why I asked the question in the first place
Kolanaki@pawb.social 1 month ago
In this given example, I would rather use a cigarette or something to make sure the actual sensor works because for all I know the test button just makes sure the alarm can sound, but not if the thing can detect smoke.