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James Trice of Concord is an ABIM-certified retired physician in rheumatology and internal medicine.
With apologies to William Shakespeare, whom I admire the most, the question is whether.
British physician Dr. Edward Jenner is credited with the originator of vaccines. Jenner theorized that material from milkmaids infected with cowpox sores, a cross-species disease that required an essay on its own, could be protective against smallpox. Cowpox is a member of the Orthopox family of viruses, which includes horsepox, monkeypox, and variola, which cause smallpox.
He took material from his nanny’s cowpox sores and infected eight-year-old James Phipps. The young man had a local reaction that made him feel sick for several days, after which he made a full recovery. Two months later, he inoculated Phips with material from a fresh smallpox wound to challenge the cowpox protection. Phipps maintained his health. This protection was confirmed in subsequent subjects, and voila, a vaccine was born.
Since that time, vaccines have been developed against a wide variety of infectious diseases, both bacterial and viral. These include measles, mumps, rubella, hepatitis A and B, chickenpox (chickenpox), and pneumococcus (the common bacterial infection that causes it). severe pneumonia), herpes zoster, Haemophilus influenza B, papilloma (HPV) virus, and COVID-19.
Vaccines are prepared using parts of infectious agents, generally proteins, to stimulate the immune response (Immunization Advisory Center). These proteins (called antigens) are sometimes complexed with adjuvants (carrier substances) to enhance the immune response. The immune response can be primarily the formation of antibodies (immune-derived proteins) against specific antigens, the priming of specific immune cells, or a combination of both.
Vaccines can be broadly classified according to how the antigens are prepared. They are produced using live or attenuated (weakened) viruses, subunit proteins or polysaccharides (long sugar chains), viral vectors, or DNA or RNA.
Here are examples of each:
Live attenuated vaccines: measles, mumps, rubella, chickenpox, rotavirus. (All 50 states require the chickenpox vaccine to attend public schools).
Inactivated or killed bacteria that cause influenza, hepatitis A, polio virus, and whooping cough.
Subunits: Diphtheria, Tetanus: Polysaccharides/Proteins: Streptococcus pneumoniae and Haemophilus influenzae B.
A recombinant containing the genetic material of the hepatitis B and HPV pathogen viruses.
Nucleic acid mRNA (messenger RNA) is delivered by specific viral proteins (antigens) COVID-19 (Pfizer and Moderna) and benign viruses are used to make viral vectors that use viral mRNAs to stimulate immune responses , which provides part of the genetic code of infectious agents. Here’s AstraZeneca’s prescription for her COVID-19 vaccine.
Severe vaccine-related side effects can occur, but are rare and generally less than 10/100,000 (.00001%).
Initiated by philanthropist Anna Harkness in 1918, the Federal Fund was developed to improve the welfare of mankind. From 1918 to her 1959 Harkness family contributed $99 million (approximately $852 million in today’s dollars) to this foundation focused on closing disparities in healthcare around the world.
It is worth noting a very recent report from this fund (found on their website) about the benefits of an administered COVID-19 vaccine. more than 18 million deaths and 18 million hospitalizations, saving more than $1 trillion in healthcare costs.
In 2022 (data provided by CDC), only 36% of U.S. citizens age 65 and older (high-risk group) received the latest COVID-19 vaccine and only 15 received the flu vaccine. Being a % is cryptic and discouraging.
Getting vaccinated reduces the spread of the disease to loved ones, builds herd immunity to limit the spread of the disease in the community, and can be vaccinated like newborns and people with chronic diseases. It helps protect those who cannot.
For the New Year, give the gift that keeps on giving, and best of all — get vaccinated.
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