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As a biology instructor at a local community college, I find that the biggest problem with vaccines is that people do not understand how they work. Shouldn't a really basic discussion of how vaccines work be a part of a show like this?

The majority of my students seem to think that a vaccine is just a bunch of chemicals that somehow incorporate themselves into our cells and/or DNA and that those chemicals wear off over time (that's why we get booster shots). I am certainly not an expert on vaccination, but this is just not the case. The functional part of any vaccine is DNA or protein that forms parts of a disease causing agent. When your immune system sees these fragments, it mounts a response to get rid of them (like it would to any disease). In the process, your immune system creates little molecules that remember that disease for long periods of time. Having these "memory molecules" in your body is what protects you from the disease. When you get a booster shot, more bits and pieces are injected into your body and those memory molecules go back to work attacking the vaccine and again, making more memory molecules (kind of a refresher course for the immune system). When I explain to my students how vaccines really work, they are shocked that science is really just taking advantage of natural processes in the body to increase your immunity.

I wonder whether, if people better understood how vaccines worked, if the issue would be so big? It seems that one of the biggest concerns with vaccines is the chemicals that are added usually as preservatives. Could we come up with natural "organic" vaccines that don't contain the chemicals? I'm sure they would cost more (shorter shelf life, required refrigeration), but if this option was available, would some of you who are resistant to vaccination be more willing to have your children immunized?

posted 3 years, 4 months ago
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