There has been more talk than ever about vaccines recently with the COVID-19 pandemic having such a huge impact on the world. Most people have a basic understanding of what vaccines are and they know that they’re meant to protect people from diseases. However, not everyone understands the logistics of how these vaccines work. Keep reading to get more information about vaccines and why they’re so crucial.
Learning How Vaccines Work
Vaccines work by helping to build your immune system to get used to certain pathogens so that it can protect you. This means giving you a type of mild exposure to viruses or bacteria so that an immune response can be produced. Vaccines are created by using molecules from a pathogen that can be introduced into the body through the vaccine. Molecules like this are called antigens and all viruses and bacteria have antigens.
An injection that contains these antigens can help the human body to learn how to produce antibodies against diseases. It teaches the body to recognize these things as invaders and your body will be able to fight things off effectively moving forward. If you ever encounter a bacteria or virus that you have been vaccinated for again, then your body will be able to aggressively fight it off. This has helped humanity to eradicate many types of diseases and it’s provided a level of protection against other diseases or viruses.
Vaccines Can Lead to Herd Immunity
It’s also important to understand that vaccines can lead to herd immunity. Essentially, if enough people receive the vaccination for a specific disease or virus, then the infection rates will become incredibly low. The low rates of infection make it so that even those who haven’t received a vaccine will be unlikely to get the disease. It’s this method that has led to the elimination of many deadly diseases over the last hundred years.
There are a few different types of vaccines including live attenuated vaccines where a weaker form of a virus is introduced into the body. Inactivated vaccines involve introducing dead cells of the virus into the body so that the body can learn from its antigens. Other types of vaccines include DNA vaccines, conjugate vaccines, and toxoid vaccines. There are many methods that can be utilized to create vaccines and more is being discovered about this all the time.