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Say goodbye to yearly flu shots

Looks like it's a recombinant vaccinia virus. These things have been in development for a very long time, hopefully we're starting to see something come out of it.
 
Catch the flu, that way you dont have to worry about getting a shot.

Natural resistance > vaccine - unless you have underlying health problems

Catch the flu while your in your 20s or 30s, and you will have natural resistance for life. This will help you when you get into your 60s and 70s. People that caught the Spanish flu in 1918 still had anti-bodies in their blood when they were 90 years old.

Flu Antibodies Recovered From 1918 Pandemic Survivors


brainhulk said:
outstanding breakthrough that hopefully can be carried over to other virus'.
Click to expand...

It would be nice if a breakthrough with the flu could carry over to more harmful diseases like Hepatitis A, B and C, and HIV.
 
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Texashiker said:
Catch the flu, that way you dont have to worry about getting a shot.

Natural resistance > vaccine - unless you have underlying health problems

Catch the flu while your in your 20s or 30s, and you will have natural resistance for life. This will help you when you get into your 60s and 70s. People that caught the Spanish flu in 1918 still had anti-bodies in their blood when they were 90 years old.

Flu Antibodies Recovered From 1918 Pandemic Survivors

It would be nice if a breakthrough with the flu could carry over to more harmful diseases like Hepatitis A, B and C, and HIV.
Click to expand...

Catch the flu and you'll be resistant to that strand of the flu for the rest of your life. The flu has nearly limitless mutations which is why it is so hard to vaccinate against.

Vaccinations are the act of infecting people without getting them sick and use peoples natural defenses. To say Natural defenses > Vaccines is retarded because vaccines are all about upping a persons natural defenses.
 
Texashiker said:
Catch the flu, that way you dont have to worry about getting a shot.

Natural resistance > vaccine - unless you have underlying health problems
Click to expand...
This could be an exception to that.
Catch the flu while your in your 20s or 30s, and you will have natural resistance for life. This will help you when you get into your 60s and 70s. People that caught the Spanish flu in 1918 still had anti-bodies in their blood when they were 90 years old.

Flu Antibodies Recovered From 1918 Pandemic Survivors
Click to expand...
That's still strain-specific immunity. This technique might provide protection across all strains.

It would be nice if a breakthrough with the flu could carry over to more harmful diseases like Hepatitis A, B and C, and HIV.
Click to expand...
That's certainly the hope. This general technique has been tried against more than a few pathogens, including HIV, with mixed results.
 
Cogman said:
To say Natural defenses > Vaccines is retarded because vaccines are all about upping a persons natural defenses.
Click to expand...

The resistance a flu vaccine provides wavers over 3 or 4 months. That is why doctors tell people not to get their flu shot too early in the flu season.

Regardless of how many mutations the flu has, its still has a genetic baseline.

Before bashing natural resistance, read this - Swine flu offers 'extraordinary super immunity'

People who recover from swine flu may be left with an extraordinary natural ability to fight off flu viruses, findings suggests.
Click to expand...
 
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Texashiker said:
The resistance a flu vaccine provides wavers over 3 or 4 months. That is why doctors tell people not to get their flu shot too early in the flu season.

Regardless of how many mutations the flu has, its still has a basic genetic baseline.

Before bashing natural resistance, read this - Swine flu offers 'extraordinary super immunity'
Click to expand...

The effectiveness of flu vaccines wavers because the flu mutates extremely quickly.

Swine flu and Spanish flu are specific brands of the flu that mutate relatively slowly hence, vaccines ARE just as effective against them as anything else. This is why you still can get the flu once per year (if not more).

Again, I'm not knocking natural defense. Natural defenses are what make vaccines work.

Now, if you would read the article (you obviously haven't) you would realize that this isn't a vaccine against a single flu strand. This a vaccine that may work against all strands of the flu, now and in the future.
 
I've never gotten a flu shot (always preferred just dealing with it than attempting to get a shot/pills/etc for most medical things), but I would get this vaccine.

Unless it causes autism, because I don't want to become autistic...
 
Cogman said:
The effectiveness of flu vaccines wavers because the flu mutates extremely quickly.
Click to expand...

Mutation has little to do with how a flu shot waivers over time. Unlike other vaccines, the flu shot only works for a few months, maybe up to a year at the most.

ABC news - flu shots only last about a year

immunize.org - flu vaccine last about 1 year

Unlike the Hepatitis B vaccine that might last for up to 20 years.

Its been shown that catching 1 type of flu provides varying degrees of resistance to other types of flu. Read the BBC article I linked to.

From the opening post, the best thing I hope for is some way to fight other viral illnesses. The flu is nothing compared to Hep C or HIV. You catch the flu and your over it in a week. HIV and Hepatitis last forever.

If working on a new flu vaccine can be used to treat HIV, the world as we know it would change.
 
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Texashiker said:
Catch the flu, that way you dont have to worry about getting a shot.

Natural resistance > vaccine - unless you have underlying health problems

Catch the flu while your in your 20s or 30s, and you will have natural resistance for life. This will help you when you get into your 60s and 70s. People that caught the Spanish flu in 1918 still had anti-bodies in their blood when they were 90 years old.
Click to expand...


Jesus christ you're an idiot. This coming from someone who has never gotten the flu shot.
 
bignateyk said:
Jesus christ you're an idiot. This coming from someone who has never gotten the flu shot.
Click to expand...

I dont guess you read the links I posted? 1 going to the BBC and the other going to medicalnewstoday - both discussing natural flu antibodies.

Are you going to call the people at the Journal of Experimental Medicine idiots for saying catching the swine flu gives resistance to other types of flu?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12152500

In beating a bout of H1N1 the body makes antibodies that can kill many other flu strains, a study in the Journal of Experimental Medicine shows.
Click to expand...
 
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I've been having pretty good luck the past two years; hven't had a major bout of illness. Caught the flu or something crazy 2 years ago, was out of it for a month. Vaccine sounds awesome, but sounds like it's going to put some drug makers out of business. Probably going to be a huge upfront cost though. Yay free healthcare...
 
Texashiker said:
Mutation has little to do with how a flu shot waivers over time. Unlike other vaccines, the flu shot only works for a few months, maybe up to a year at the most.

ABC news - flu shots only last about a year

immunize.org - flu vaccine last about 1 year

Unlike the Hepatitis B vaccine that might last for up to 20 years.

Its been shown that catching 1 type of flu provides varying degrees of resistance to other types of flu. Read the BBC article I linked to.

From the opening post, the best thing I hope for is some way to fight other viral illnesses. The flu is nothing compared to Hep C or HIV. You catch the flu and your over it in a week. HIV and Hepatitis last forever.

If working on a new flu vaccine can be used to treat HIV, the world as we know it would change.
Click to expand...

Do you not understand why they only work for a short time? Its because they aim them at expected flu strains. Mutation causes new strains. Again, read the OP's article so you'll understand that this could potentially enable immunization against new strains so you wouldn't have to get a new flu shot.

A lot of people call colds and minor stuff like that the flu. If you ever get a serious case of it, you will understand why a vaccine is better than natural immunity for the simple reason you don't have to deal with the side effects of getting the flu (namely the risk of it hitting you really hard and possibly even killing you).
 
darkswordsman17 said:
Again, read the OP's article so you'll understand that this could potentially enable immunization against new strains so you wouldn't have to get a new flu shot.
Click to expand...

There is nothing in the article that says people will not have to get a yearly flu shot. It only says "which could work against all known flu strains"

My wifes best friend got her flu shot this year - and still caught the flu, probably because the vaccine did not cover the type of flu she got. This new vaccine would help prevent stuff like that - but the article does not mention how "long" the vaccine would be effective.

Current flu vaccines are only good for about 3 - 4 months. After that their effect starts to wear off, it has nothing to do with mutations. Read the article I linked to at ABCnews.
 
Cogman said:
Catch the flu and you'll be resistant to that strand of the flu for the rest of your life. The flu has nearly limitless mutations which is why it is so hard to vaccinate against.

Vaccinations are the act of infecting people without getting them sick and use peoples natural defenses. To say Natural defenses > Vaccines is retarded because vaccines are all about upping a persons natural defenses.
Click to expand...

He's somewhat right though. You'll still catch the flu, it just won't be very bad. I remember getting the flu when I was ~10 and it was hell. 5 days puking my guts out, sore, hot/cold, headache...

Now I get the flu and it's just some muscle soreness and feeling lethargic for 2 days.
 
Texashiker said:
There is nothing in the article that says people will not have to get a yearly flu shot. It only says "which could work against all known flu strains"

My wifes best friend got her flu shot this year - and still caught the flu, probably because the vaccine did not cover the type of flu she got. This new vaccine would help prevent stuff like that - but the article does not mention how "long" the vaccine would be effective.

Current flu vaccines are only good for about 3 - 4 months. After that their effect starts to wear off, it has nothing to do with mutations. Read the article I linked to at ABCnews.
Click to expand...

Again, read the article. Yes it does.

From the article you posted:

How long does immunity from influenza vaccine last?
Protection from influenza vaccine is thought to persist for a year or less because of waning antibody and because of changes in the circulating influenza virus from year to year.
Click to expand...

Now, this from the OP's article:

Traditional vaccines stimulate the body to produce antibodies to fight the flu, whereas the new treatment, developed by a team led by Sarah Gilbert, boosts the production of T-cells, which identify and kill infected cells.
Click to expand...

This would be accomplishing the same thing as natural immunity, only it could potentially work for much wider than natural immunity without the need to get infected.
 
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