• Question: If vaccineations have a bit of the virus in the cure then how do people not catch the virus again?

    Asked by near520muon on 30 Dec 2024.
    • Photo: Kip Heath

      Kip Heath answered on 30 Dec 2024:

      This is a great question. What a vaccination does is use something to make your body think that it’s seen the virus. This might be a bit of the virus, or a weakened (attenuated) version of the virus. A bit of the virus isn’t enough to make you ill but it is enough to make your immune system develop antibodies so that if you catch the virus again, then your immune system deals with it before any symptoms develop.

Comments

  • Photo: melissaupjohn

    melissaupjohn commented on :

    This is a great question, Kip has explained this really well. It’s worth considering that some vaccines seem to provide lifetime protection against a virus (for example, hepatitis) whereas other vaccines are generally recommended to need to be repeated to maintain protection (for example, rabies).

  • Photo: Alison

    Alison commented on :

    Covid, and other similar viruses – like flu – are constantly changing. So the vaccine protects you against the current version of the virus, but not necessarily the next version.