PSYC 190 week 9

How Effective Are Vaccines?

• The measles vaccine has saved ~17.1 million lives since 2001

• Polio vaccine introduced in 1955

• Polio paralysis - 1 in 100 kids become paralyzed

  • one leg shorter than the other

• After 5 years, the number of polio cases went down a lot

• COVID has killed more Americans than all the wars of the 20th century combined

• What if the disease changes?

  • measels doesn’t change

  • HIV doesn’t change

  • A new flu variant shows up every couple of years and usually from South Asia, so from February to November, they have time to make a new vaccine

How Do Vaccines Work?

• If you get an infection, it becomes a race between your immune system and the bacteria

• It might take 10 days to make an antibody response

• The point of the vaccine is to get rid of the race, so you have an advantage to fight it

• Most of the covid vaccines were RNA vaccines

• DNA is true genetic material transcribed to RNA

• At any moment a human cell is adding 5000 messages

• RNA vaccines don’t become a part of your body

• The RNA message is for 1 single coronavirus protein

• Its a no pain no gain situation

  • it’s good that the vaccine hurts

The COVID Vaccines Work

• Initially efficacy in the placebo controlled clinical trials was approximately 95%

• 6 month efficacy remained high

• In the current real world, the vaccines have efficacy

  • 33% overall

  • 50% for hospitalizations

  • compared to all people not recently vaccinated (imperfect comparison)

• COVID vaccination averted approximately 68,000 hospitalizations during the 2023-24 respiratory season

• Long term safety data

  • the FDA looked at all the clinical trials and when did safety signatures occur

  • if there’s a problem with a vaccine, it usually shows up in 3 months

Fearmongering

• VAERS database: The HULK example       

  • antivaxers writing fake death stories in the data base

  • more social media clicks equals more $$ for them

  • or they are trying to sell their supplements

• Vaccines don’t cause autism

RFK

• Measle vaccine

• About 1000 measle cases

• Placebo controlled trials once a new version of a vaccine comes out

• Kids develop a rash and lung infection

• Measels can also cause brain damage

• Measels is the most infectious disease

The New FDA

• Blocking COVID vaccines

• Placebo controlled trials

Allergic Reactions to Vaccines

• People allergic to ingredients in vaccines

• It the flu one, people are usually allergic to the chicken eggs

• People allergic to antibiotics