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The Water Cooler
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Anyone else getting a flu shot ?
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<blockquote data-quote="donner" data-source="post: 4153595" data-attributes="member: 277"><p>It's certainly not a stupid question.</p><p></p><p>If you want a deep dive into such things, i'd suggest "The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race" - it's an interesting look at CRISPR and the development of the covid vaccine. </p><p></p><p>Another is "The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History". It's a breakdown of the 1918 flu outbreak and the societal things that lead to it's spread and deadliness. </p><p></p><p>I can't remember which one explained the differences between which viruses can easily have vaccines and which can't, but the gist of it (as i recall) was that all viruses mutate, not all mutations (most even) do not allow the virus to survive, some mutations cause an increase in deadliness (which can work against a virus) and some increase or decrease transmission ease (viruses need new hosts, so being easily transmitted helps it survive). And some viruses seem to have a link between their stability and the part of them that makes them dangerous to humans. So in measles (i believe), if the part that is dangerous to humans mutates then the virus dies. In other viruses, those traits aren't linked. By being linked, we know what a vaccine should look like. In the flu, it's often a guess based on the mutations. </p><p></p><p>IIRC, your body stores most immune responses so it knows how to handle when the virus returns. But it eventually forgets, which is why some viruses also come back in waves over the course of many years.</p><p></p><p>But again, this is all a jumble of things i've read, so i could easily be misstating things. But both books are worth reading if you are interested.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="donner, post: 4153595, member: 277"] It's certainly not a stupid question. If you want a deep dive into such things, i'd suggest "The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race" - it's an interesting look at CRISPR and the development of the covid vaccine. Another is "The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History". It's a breakdown of the 1918 flu outbreak and the societal things that lead to it's spread and deadliness. I can't remember which one explained the differences between which viruses can easily have vaccines and which can't, but the gist of it (as i recall) was that all viruses mutate, not all mutations (most even) do not allow the virus to survive, some mutations cause an increase in deadliness (which can work against a virus) and some increase or decrease transmission ease (viruses need new hosts, so being easily transmitted helps it survive). And some viruses seem to have a link between their stability and the part of them that makes them dangerous to humans. So in measles (i believe), if the part that is dangerous to humans mutates then the virus dies. In other viruses, those traits aren't linked. By being linked, we know what a vaccine should look like. In the flu, it's often a guess based on the mutations. IIRC, your body stores most immune responses so it knows how to handle when the virus returns. But it eventually forgets, which is why some viruses also come back in waves over the course of many years. But again, this is all a jumble of things i've read, so i could easily be misstating things. But both books are worth reading if you are interested. [/QUOTE]
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