Do Influenza Vaccines Work?

GrundleStiltzkin said:

NorthwestFresh said:

Millions around the world still die from it every year and that’s without testing everyone ill for the specific cause of death.

Apples/Oranges.

Like the Vid, common cold is a coronavirus, no vaccine there. I'm not as sanguine on vaccine prospects.

Common cold viruses are often not conronavirus; Rhinovirus (a Picornavirus) is most common

Coronaviruses (4 main types; NL63, OC43, 229E, and HKU1) make up only about 20% of "common cold" infections.

OC43 and HKU1 duration of immunity for both strains is about 40 weeks. There has been some scientific evidence that infection from some coronavirus strains can provide temporary increased immunity from other coronavirus strains. This is likely what people are talking about when they talk about possible cross immunity or even false antibody positives.

Vaccines for Coronaviruses are tricky because they contain the proofreading Nsp14-ExoN that removes mis-incorporated nucleotide and limits coronavirus mutations make them particularly resistant to the anti-viral medication typically used to treat some viruses (Reverse-transcriptase inhibitor (RTIs) or Nucleoside analogs). Think treatment of HIV, Hep B, Herpes.

The positive for a vaccine is because coronavirus have exonuclease proofreading in their replicases; they actually have a self check for accurate replication that limits mutations.

TLDR; Too high level for this bored... Took a few biomedical engineering classes at UW once... the high strung, overly stressed, first generation Asian (RIP meek) pre-med girls were fucking wild after a drink or two.

NorthwestFresh said:

GrundleStiltzkin said:

Fire_Marshall_Bill said:

Flu vaccine: racket for big farm

If they make it work, pay ‘em

My purpose for this thread is how can anyone know if the vaccines work? If someone who takes it gets the “flu,” which happens to my wife every other year it seems, the medical community just say “whoops, wrong strain” which is odd because I don’t take an annual vaccine and haven’t had the flu in almost 20 years. The kids get the same shot as wife and they don’t get it, either.

Makes no sense to me.

The flu vaccine is completely the opposite problem from a coronavirus vaccine

Coronavirus have a low mutation rate but have the "check valve" I described above that prevents mutations but also prevents typical anti virals or vaccines from working

The flu, specifically influenza A has a very rapid mutation rate due to the way it replicates its RNA polymerase and that the influenza genome is segmented and can mix during infection.

The flu vaccine each year is the best the guess at how the various virus strands will mutate and what will spread the most that season.

You and your wifes different reactions to the seasonal flu are a combination of luck, exposure, and genetic superiority.