The administration of antigenic material to stimulate the immune system of an individual to develop adaptive immunity to a disease.
Questions tagged [vaccination]
168 questions
110
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What is the effect of non-vaccinated people on vaccinated people?
Many times have I heard that anti-vaccine people are dangerous even to the vaccinated population. Is that true? If so, how can it be? People say that germs will attack them, and soon they would eventually grow and spread even toward general…
leo
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What was the breakthrough behind the “sudden” feasibility of mRNA vaccines in 2020?
Several sources describe the initial failures in the realization of a successful mRNA vaccine. E.g., this 2017 article from Stat describes the following problem faced by Moderna while working on one of their mRNA vaccines:
The safe dose was too…
hb20007
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Why does vaccine development take so long?
The main principle behind a vaccine is to take a deactivated virus, "show" it to the immune system so it can "learn" how it looks like, so if and when the real virus does attack us, our immune system is already prepared for it. Vaccines have been…
vsz
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Are the antibodies developed by differing vaccines still the same?
If one person gets an mRNA vaccine that teaches their body to deal with a specific virus, and another person gets a similar but different mRNA vaccine, and another person gets a more "classic" vaccine with modified/weakened/dead virus cells, will…
Francis Bartkowiak
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29
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4 answers
What does vaccine efficacy mean?
In the last few weeks, Pfizer/BionTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca have each released preliminary estimates of the efficacy of their SARS-COV-2 vaccines.
But what do their respective efficacy percentages actually mean? Is the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine…
thegreatwhatsit
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29
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1 answer
Are fully vaccinated people more likely to not get infected at all with COVID-19?
I've found some papers which describe that the viral shedding does not decrease during infection (for fully vaccinated people). But the overall shedding time does decrease. Therefore it is possible to say, that the vaccines could have a positive…
Mourinho_1
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27
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1 answer
Why do vaccines cause your arm to hurt?
When you get a shot for a vaccine (for example, the annual flu vaccine), the nurse frequently indicates that your arm will ache for a day or two, maybe more. This ache is typically not just a pain from having your skin punctured, but is actually an…
Kate Bertelsen
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27
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Why are scientists saying that the Omicron COVID-19 variant is a reason to get a booster?
I was watching Vox’s video, Big questions about the Covid booster shot, answered, which references the New York Times article Omicron Prompts Swift Reconsideration of Boosters Among Scientists.
In these sources, it is mentioned that the scientific…
hb20007
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26
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2 answers
How is duration of efficacy estimated for vaccines?
Vaccines, especially those given in adulthood, usually have term limits attached, eg: 10 years for yellow fever or 3 years for typhoid. Since presumably the time course of an immune response is no great respecter of our calendrical conventions, and…
walkytalky
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How does the immune system "learn" from a vaccine?
According to Wikipedia:
A vaccine typically contains an agent that resembles a disease-causing
microorganism, and is often made from weakened or killed forms of the
microbe, its toxins or one of its surface proteins. The agent
stimulates the…
Douglas S. Stones
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23
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3 answers
Why are vaccines for polio taken orally while vaccines for TB need to be injected?
My thoughts are that maybe the TB antigens necessary to produce an immune response are proteins; therefore they can be digested in the stomach and small intestine. But I may be wrong though. I am confused why I can't say the same for polio vaccine.
James
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22
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Effects of mRNA vaccines on human body processes
I would like to understand the effect of an mRNA vaccine on more complex processes in the human body.
To what extent does this "artificial", external addition of mRNA interfere with the body's processes? It seems naïve to me to think that it cannot…
choXer
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21
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2 answers
Is there a vaccine against the plague (Yersinia pestis)?
There seems to be recurrent events of infections of the plage (Yersinia pestis), from the well known Justinian plague to the Black Death and to recent years. In fact, two cases were reported in China in November 2019. However, it seems there is not…
luchonacho
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20
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Why don't we have vaccination against all diseases caused by microbes?
People can be vaccinated against certain diseases. Principle of vaccination is to use live attenuated load or inactivated. My question is - why we dont have vaccination against all diseases which are caused by microbes?
akm
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19
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Do mRNA vaccines cause transfected cells to be killed by cytotoxic T cells?
Based on my research on how mRNA vaccines (specifically for COVID-19) work:
An mRNA sequence, that contains the sequence of the coronavirus spike protein, is absorbed by some cells. These cells now produce foreign coronavirus spike protein. These…
mihirb
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