Resources
- How are vaccines developed?Vaccines contain tiny fragments of the disease-causing organism or the blueprints for making the tiny fragments. They also contain other ingredients to keep the vaccine safe and effective. These latter ingredients are included in most vaccines and have been used for decades in billions of doses of vaccine.
- How do vaccines work?Germs are all around us, both in our environment and in our bodies. When a person is susceptible and they encounter a harmful organism, it can lead to disease and death.
- How mRNA Speeds Up Vaccine DevelopmentThis understandably raises questions about how a vaccine could be developed so quickly. One reason is the use of messenger ribonucleic acid, or mRNA. Some COVID-19 vaccines, including those made by Pfizer and Moderna, are being made using synthetic mRNA, which drives protein production in cells to help defend the body against the virus.
- Medicine is an imperfect science – but you can still trust its processIn the past, many vaccines that successfully vanquished societal outbreaks of polio, measles and mumps are now routinely administered in childhood with minimal objection, despite the fact that there is no such thing as zero risk.
- Vaccine Ingredients – Fetal CellsVaccines for varicella (chickenpox), rubella (the “R” in the MMR vaccine), hepatitis A, rabies (one version, called Imovax®) and COVID-19 (one U.S.-approved version, Johnson & Johnson (J&J)/Janssen) are all made by growing the viruses in fetal cells. All of these, except the COVID-19 vaccine, are made using fibroblast cells. The COVID-19 vaccine (J&J/Janssen) is made using fetal retinal cells.
Research & Reference
- Vaccine Development: Science DirectVaccine development involves the process of taking a new antigen or immunogen identified in the research process and developing this substance into a final vaccine that can be evaluated through preclinical and clinical studies to determine the safety and efficacy of the resultant vaccine.
Vaccination Benefits-How Well Vaccines Work
Vaccines are perhaps the single safest and most effective preventive health measure ever devised. In the first of two episodes on this subject, learn the history of vaccination, what types of vaccines doctors use to stave off specific diseases, and why some people still question whether this technique works.
Source: Kanopy
Perspectives
History of Vaccine Development
Vaccinology, the concept of a science ranging from the study of immunology to the development and distribution of vaccines, was a word invented by Jonas Salk. This book covers the history of the methodological progress in vaccine development and to the social and ethical issues raised by vaccination. Chapters include "Jenner and the Vaccination against Smallpox," "Viral Vaccines," and "Ethical and Social Aspects of vaccines." Contributing authors include pioneers in the field, such as Samuel L. Katz and Hilary Koprowski. This history of vaccines is relatively short and many of its protagonists are still alive. This book was written by some of the chief actors in the drama whose subject matter is the conquest of epidemic disease.
DNA Vaccination/Genetic Vaccination
Genetic / DNA immunization represents a novel approach to vaccine and immune therapeutic development. The direct injec tion of nucleic acid expression cassettes into a living host results in a limited number of its cells becoming factories for production of the introduced gene products. This host-inappropriate gene expression has important immunological consequences, resulting in the specific immune activation of the host against the gene delivered antigen. The recent demonstration by a number of laboratories that the induced immune responses are functional in experimental models against both specific infectious diseases and cancers is likely to have dramatic consequences for the develop ment of a new generation of experimental vaccines and immune therapies. This technology has the potential to enable the pro duction of vaccines and immune-based therapies that are not only effective immunologically but are accessible to the entire world (rather than just to the most developed nations). Vaccine Development Vaccination against pathogenic microorganisms represents one of the most important advances in the history of medicine. Vaccines, including those against polio, measles, mumps, rubella, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, pertussis and other diseases, have dramatically improved and protected more human lives than any other avenue of modern medicine. The vaccine against smallpox, for example, has been so successful that it is now widely believed that this malicious killer, responsible for more deaths in the twentieth century than World Wars I and II combined, has been removed from the face of the earth.
How do vaccines work? - Kelwalin Dhanasarnsombut
Learn the science behind how vaccines trigger an immune response and teach our bodies to recognize dangerous pathogens.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rb7TVW77ZCs
Science of Vaccines
Source: https://www.nm.org/healthbeat/covid-19/believe-in-the-vaccine/science-of-vaccines-infographic