The Truth About Vaccines: What are they and how do they work?
No matter who you are or where you’re from, you’ve probably had some kind of exposure to conversations regarding vaccination. After all, the world is still recovering from the effects of a long-standing viral pandemic. It’s only natural that we talk about vaccines because they’re one of the most effective ways to protect ourselves against viruses.
However with every widespread topic is the proliferation of misunderstandings and misinformation. We’re here today to help explain what vaccines are, how they work, as well as explore the effective differences in varying vaccine production processes. By the time you reach the end of this article, we hope you have a much better understanding of the science behind this paradigm-shifting medical discovery.
What are vaccines?
First, let’s get the terminology out of the way.
Vaccines are medical products that most commonly consist of an injection via needle (but sometimes administered orally or nasally) that causes your body to produce immunity against a specific disease.
Vaccination is the process by which a vaccine is given in order to produce immunity.
Finally, immunization is the process by which an organism becomes protected against disease. As modern day immunization often occurs as a result of vaccination, vaccination and immunization are sometimes interchangeably used.
Why vaccines?
Vaccination is a basic, safe, and effective approach to immunization. In fact, vaccination relies on the human body’s inherent defense system! By introducing harmless genetic material from various pathogens like viruses or bacteria, our body’s immune system gets a chance to create strong antibodies to fight off their harmful counterparts without worry of being overwhelmed.
Think of it as learning how to swim before jumping into the ocean. Or studying before taking an exam. In the same way we prepare our bodies and minds for various activities, vaccination gives our immune system a chance to prepare itself. With vaccination to prepare our immune systems, our symptoms to harmful pathogens are lessened and sometimes even rid of altogether.
Before scientists decide to create a vaccine for a specific pathogen, they consider three main factors:
- How the human body’s immune system responds to the pathogen without vaccination.
- What conditions the human body must fit for effective vaccination.
- What technology and approach is available for effective vaccine production.
It’s important that every person’s immune system and overall health has subtle differences. These differences, however small, can largely impact the effectiveness of vaccines. That’s why it’s so important that as much research and testing is done as possible before a vaccine’s design is finalized. Even then, medical researchers often come up with multiple types of vaccines to further reduce risk and maximize the effectiveness of immunization.
Vaccines are designed and engineered in a variety of ways, requiring unique manufacturing processes. Many even necessitate the creation of specialized infrastructure and technologies that sometimes result in high production costs.
You can think of differently manufactured vaccines as varying ways of learning how to swim. For some people, jumping into a pool head-on is more effective, and very cheap. Others might need to buy lots of floats and maybe even hire expensive coaches and instructors to slowly teach them over time. Whichever the case, different vaccine manufacturing processes often result in varying levels of immunization efficiency.
Types of vaccines
Today’s most common vaccines are classified as such:
- Inactivated vaccines.
- Live-attenuated vaccines.
- Messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines.
- Subunit, recombinant, polysaccharide, and conjugate vaccines.
- Toxoid vaccines.
- Viral vector vaccines.
Inactivated Vaccines
Inactivated vaccines are produced by adapting a pathogen’s lifeless form. Because the pathogen is less responsive and less of a threat, they typically do not generate as high an immune response from our bodies. As a result, less protection is provided compared to live vaccines and requires numerous doses over time — booster vaccinations — to maintain protection against diseases.
Inactivated vaccines are mostly used in protection against diseases like Hepatitis A, Flu, Polio, and Rabies. The COVID-19 vaccines ‘Sinovac’ and ‘Sinopharm’ used in China are also inactivated vaccines.
Live-attenuated Vaccines
Live-attenuated vaccines are composed of virus cells that have been cultivated and treated with specific chemicals to inhibit the majority of their destructive properties while retaining a lot of their core structure. This way, they still trigger a significant immune system response that generates long-lasting, effective antibodies. Most live vaccines require only one or two doses to provide lifetime protection against a pathogen and the illness it causes.
However, live vaccines also have some limitations. As the vaccines include a tiny quantity of the attenuated live virus, some patients, such as those with weak immune systems, long-term health issues, or who have undergone an organ transplant, should consult with their healthcare professional before taking them. Moreover, they are inappropriate for utilization in remote areas as they require advanced storage conditions (extreme cold) for proper preservation.
Live-attenuated vaccines are used for protection against Measles, mumps, rubella (MMR combined vaccine), Rotavirus, Smallpox, Chickenpox, Yellow fever.
Messenger RNA Vaccines
Messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines are a new type of vaccine that has taken years of research and analysis to develop. Most vaccines take some form of genetic material from pathogens and place it inside the human body to trigger an immune response.
mRNA vaccines take an entirely different approach. Instead, they take some of the pathogen’s mRNA — sequences of code that are like a list of instructions — and inject it into recipients to teach their body’s cells how to create a piece of protein called the ‘spike protein’. This spike protein then triggers an immune response, and antibodies are created.
Advantages of this approach include rapid immune response times and much less risk of disease as a live virus is not required.
Moderna’s mRNA 1273 and Pfizer-BioNTech’s BNT162b2 are both mRNA vaccines that have only just recently been developed. They’re currently manufactured in the United States, with recognition and deployment for global use.
Subunit, recombinant, polysaccharide, and conjugate vaccines
Specific molecules found in pathogens, such as protein, sugar, or capsids, are utilized in the creation of subunit, recombinant, polysaccharide, and conjugate vaccines. As these vaccines only utilize small elements of a pathogen, they produce a high immune response that is highly effective to those particular parts of the germ. Thus, these vaccines can be used on nearly anybody, including those with weak immune systems and long-term health conditions. However, the efficiency of these vaccines is limited as they may require booster doses to achieve sustained illness protection.
These vaccines are usually adapted to protect against various types of diseases, such as Influenza, Hib (Haemophilus influenzae type b) disease, Hepatitis B, HPV (Human papillomavirus), Pertussis (Whooping cough), Pneumococcal disease, Meningococcal disease, and Shingles.
Toxoid vaccines
Toxoid vaccines are produced by inactivating the toxin of a disease-causing pathogen. Because the produced toxin has no effect, it remains harmless while still triggering a strong immune response that leads to immunity. It’s important to note that immunity is developed against the toxins rather than the pathogen itself. Patients who receive toxoid vaccines require booster shots for full efficiency to protect against diseases.
Toxoid vaccines are mostly used to prevent Diphtheria and Tetanus.
Viral vector vaccines
Scientists have been researching viral vector vaccines for decades. They’re similar to mRNA vaccines in that their core purpose is to teach the body’s cells how to create ‘spike proteins’. Rather than directly injecting RNA, viral vector vaccines employ viruses that have been modified to ‘invade’ only with code that teaches your body how to create antigens — which in turn trigger the production of effective antibodies. These types of vaccines are highly effective in boosting immunity.
This technique is utilized by AstraZeneca (U.K.), Johnson & Johnson (U.S.), and SputnikV (Russia) in the production of their COVID-19 vaccines.
Some recent Ebola vaccines also employ viral vector technology, with more research being conducted to explore adaptation for more infectious pathogens such as Zika, flu, and HIV.
At the end of the day
Vaccines exist in many forms and are created through varying processes, undergoing extensive research and testing before deployment to ensure a significant baseline in efficiency. While there’s still a lot to discover and learn, vaccines have already saved millions upon millions of lives and have prevented innumerable cases of severe illness and disability. Mortality rates tied to many infectious pathogens continue to decrease as vaccines work to supplement human immune responses. In the end, vaccines have reduced the overall spread and rate of pathogenic infection across the globe.
The effectiveness of vaccination will only increase with more research, discovery, and innovation, the importance of which truly can’t be overstated. As a medical technology company, Ever has a bird’s eye view of essential physician workflows, and is well positioned to supplement them greatly.
We’ve partnered with pioneering experts in diverse, exciting fields to form clinical research organizations that are superpowered by the latest in technology. Equipped with infrastructure capable of greater collaborative networking, data transfer and analysis, and much more, we hope to drive vaccination technology — and ultimately all medical technology — further than ever before. From the creation of AI/machine learning modules that speed up data analysis to supplying physicians with better monitoring software and hardware, we’re forging a data-driven future that will bring about medical breakthroughs on an unprecedented scale.
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