Aviarome
Member
Puck,
What you describe is the CDC's attempt to cover, via bioinformatics, the genetic drift that can occur with the envelope proteins, and like I said, it is possible that the studies do not cover the strains that are currently circulating around our day to day lives. As for side effects, they are extremely mild, and have the same rates as placebo injections. In addition, any foreign substance injected can cause an inflammatory reaction, and cause the release of cytokines (like you mentioned earlier) which may cause mild fever, etc. However, unlike the actual flu, the inactivated virus particles do not cause a pathophysiologic process.
A study done predicts that the vaccine covers 50-80% against clinically diagnosed cases of the flu (ie, even those strains not covered by the vaccine), and reduces the incidence of the flu by 68% by laboratory diagnoses. This study included a couple of years where the vaccine poorly covered the circulating strains of influenza.
As for the immune system. Yes, there are many aspects of the immune system, and I agree that a decrease in infectious disease is helped by public health services, nutrition, personal hygiene, etc. But vaccinations are of tremendous health. You only need to look at the decreased numbers of mumps, measles, rubella, chicken pox, hepatitis B, etc.
I cite these facts only to dispel the myths of flu vaccinations. They do work, maybe not all the time, but it works. And, you will not get the flu from the vaccine.
As for elderberry, since you seem to know a lot about proteins, elderberry contains a protein class called ribosome inactivating protein. This is the same class as that of ricin. However, I apologize for causing any sort of fear in my prevoius post; the toxicity of elderberry is FAR less than ricin and may not cause any appreciable problems in humans. For those that are interested, here are a few sources:
Batelli MG, Citores L, "Toxicity and cytotoxicity of nigrin b, a two-chain ribosome inactivating protein from Sambucus nigra: comparison with ricin" Archives of Toxicology, 71;6:360-364.
Peumans WJ, Roy S, Barre A. "Elderberry (sambucus nigra) contains truncated nedu4Ac(a-2-6)Gal/GalNAc-binding type 2 ribosome-inactivating proteins" FEBS letters, 425:35-39.
Rojo MA, Yato M, Shibuya N, "Isolation, cDNA Cloning, biological properties, and arbohydrate binding specificity of Sieboldin-b, a type II RIP from the Bark of japanese elderberry, sambucus sieboldiana" Arch of Biochemistry and Biophysics, 340;2:185-194.
Sorry, i think this post is a bit long, but i hope i clarified info about the flu vaccines for everyone.
What you describe is the CDC's attempt to cover, via bioinformatics, the genetic drift that can occur with the envelope proteins, and like I said, it is possible that the studies do not cover the strains that are currently circulating around our day to day lives. As for side effects, they are extremely mild, and have the same rates as placebo injections. In addition, any foreign substance injected can cause an inflammatory reaction, and cause the release of cytokines (like you mentioned earlier) which may cause mild fever, etc. However, unlike the actual flu, the inactivated virus particles do not cause a pathophysiologic process.
A study done predicts that the vaccine covers 50-80% against clinically diagnosed cases of the flu (ie, even those strains not covered by the vaccine), and reduces the incidence of the flu by 68% by laboratory diagnoses. This study included a couple of years where the vaccine poorly covered the circulating strains of influenza.
As for the immune system. Yes, there are many aspects of the immune system, and I agree that a decrease in infectious disease is helped by public health services, nutrition, personal hygiene, etc. But vaccinations are of tremendous health. You only need to look at the decreased numbers of mumps, measles, rubella, chicken pox, hepatitis B, etc.
I cite these facts only to dispel the myths of flu vaccinations. They do work, maybe not all the time, but it works. And, you will not get the flu from the vaccine.
As for elderberry, since you seem to know a lot about proteins, elderberry contains a protein class called ribosome inactivating protein. This is the same class as that of ricin. However, I apologize for causing any sort of fear in my prevoius post; the toxicity of elderberry is FAR less than ricin and may not cause any appreciable problems in humans. For those that are interested, here are a few sources:
Batelli MG, Citores L, "Toxicity and cytotoxicity of nigrin b, a two-chain ribosome inactivating protein from Sambucus nigra: comparison with ricin" Archives of Toxicology, 71;6:360-364.
Peumans WJ, Roy S, Barre A. "Elderberry (sambucus nigra) contains truncated nedu4Ac(a-2-6)Gal/GalNAc-binding type 2 ribosome-inactivating proteins" FEBS letters, 425:35-39.
Rojo MA, Yato M, Shibuya N, "Isolation, cDNA Cloning, biological properties, and arbohydrate binding specificity of Sieboldin-b, a type II RIP from the Bark of japanese elderberry, sambucus sieboldiana" Arch of Biochemistry and Biophysics, 340;2:185-194.
Sorry, i think this post is a bit long, but i hope i clarified info about the flu vaccines for everyone.
