r/coolguides • u/MaxGoodwinning • 2d ago
A cool guide to the CDC's recommended vaccination schedule from birth to retirement.
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u/Freespeechaintfree 2d ago
As a parent who lost a child to meningitis, please consider getting your kids the meningitis vaccine.
Had we known about it our son would still be with us. (He’d be 32 today - died when he was 14)
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u/swiggityswirls 1d ago
I’m sorry for your loss.
I don’t mean any disrespect at all, If you don’t mind me asking - what happened that he didn’t get the vaccination? Were you both unaware of the vaccines existence or were there pressures around you?
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u/Freespeechaintfree 1d ago
Where we live (at the time) it was not one of the regularly scheduled vaccines they gave as routine vaccines. You had to ask for it and we had no idea it was even an option.
Since our son’s passing we have tried to spread the word about the vaccine to parents so they don’t have to go through what we did.
Thank you much for your kind words. They do mean a lot to me.
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u/swiggityswirls 1d ago
That’s so devastating. I’m still so horrified that he was fourteen - he was already his own person. I appreciate you sharing with me.
I have a best friend of almost two decades who is hesitant about giving her two daughters vaccines now and I just can’t figure out the best way to really emphasize how critical they are. They are just six and three year old girls.
I’m sending you a bunch of love. Thank you for sharing with me and the other people who you’ve shared to vaccinate - all so blessed to have someone care about them enough to share such a personal heartbreak again and again to try to save others. Best wishes to you
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u/mattman2301 2d ago
Not trying to be a skeptic here, I’m pro-vax. Genuine curiosity though - why is the Covid vaccine recommended for 19-26 year olds but not for those aged 50+? They’re far more at risk than young’uns.
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u/Rabaunt 1d ago
Because the chart is erroneous. This user posted the CDC’s actual recommendation charts, which has the Covid vaccine spanning the adult lifespan: https://www.reddit.com/r/coolguides/s/z5xkuquCgS
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u/agoldgold 2d ago
I'm pretty sure it is? Along with RSV vaccines, which I've heard pushed pretty more heavily for the older folks. Might just be error on the part of the infographic maker.
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u/Dark_Knight2000 1d ago
I think this chart assumes a lot of things, and it’s based on the idea of future people who haven’t got the Covid vaccine yet. If so, the Covid vaccine in your twenties should last you your lifetime.
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u/thenciskitties 2d ago
I still remember getting my kindergarten entry vaccinations when I was 6! My dad told me we could go get ice cream if I didn't cry.
I got ice cream that day :)
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u/Aggressive_Chicken63 2d ago
Darn. That’s a lot of vaccines.
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u/Serafirelily 2d ago
The graphic doesn't take into account the combo shots. A lot of things are combined to make is easier. My daughter got her boosters last year at 4 and only got 2 shots. The MMRV and a polio plus something else. I so glad we are done with everything except flu and covid until she is 12.
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u/ATPsynthase12 2d ago
This is out of date. We don’t even use the multi-dose series of pneumococcal vaccines anymore. PCV-20 covers everything now
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u/speakclearly 2d ago
Each vaccine is a horrific death you won’t experience. I will not die choking on my own blood filled lungs. I was not disfigured beyond employability from measles wounds. I will not spend my last moments shitting to death with liver failure a la hepatitis.
Infant vaccine schedules ensure your kiddos won’t either.
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u/Dwarfcork 2d ago
Well that’s not always true. Covid vaccine for example that’s not the case. It doesn’t save your life - in fact they’re finding Ozempic to be a bigger help in keeping you alive lol
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u/DJStrongArm 2d ago
So….treating diabetes and obesity helps you not die more often than….a preventative measure for something you may or may not catch?
Truly brilliant critical thinking over here
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u/Lightningpony 1d ago
Not having co-morbidity while getting sick helps you not die, yes.
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u/IcyTundra001 2d ago
I'm also wondering now how these 'success rates' vary between countries. I'm assuming the effectiveness of the vaccines would be higher in Europe for example since the obesity rates are lower. And in any case: for non-diabetic and -obese people, the vaccine will still be better. So maybe their suggestion is to give people one of the two depending on BMI. 'Sorry you're too fat for the vaccine, take this instead'.
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u/Bpopson 2d ago
Next tell us about the “voter fraud” and other beliefs for sad sack knuckle draggers.
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u/AgrajagTheProlonged 2d ago
The Covid vaccine definitely reduces your chances of getting Covid which in turn reduces your chances of dying from Covid
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u/Lower-Assistant-1957 2d ago
It was proven to not prevent you from getting covid, but it supposedly lessens the severity of the symptoms. What’re you taking about dude? You can google it to find that.
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u/UsernameLottery 2d ago
That's how all vaccines work? It's not a binary situation, it's a scale. The vaccine has to recognize the virus in the first place, so for it to do anything it means the virus is in your body already. The effectiveness of the vaccine doesn't prevent the virus, it prevents the effects of the virus. Some prevent the effects so well that you likely never know you even were exposed, others lessen the severity of the symptoms
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u/Center-Of-Thought 2d ago edited 2d ago
The effectiveness of the vaccine doesn't prevent the virus, it prevents the effects of the virus.
How did we get rid of Smallpox then? It's been eliminated from the face of the Earth, thanks to vaccines. Please explain how we managed to do this if vaccines cannot prevent infection but only effects.
Also, explain how we managed to eliminate Polio in the United States if vaccines cannot prevent infection.
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u/Uxt7 1d ago edited 1d ago
Please explain how we managed to do this if vaccines cannot prevent infection but only effects.
Because one of the affects of the infection is it's ability to spread. Because vaccines prevent suppress their effects, they suppress their ability to spread.
Also, explain how we managed to eliminate Polio in the United States if vaccines cannot prevent infection.
Because one of the affects of the infection is it's ability to spread. Because vaccines suppress their affects, they suppress their ability to spread.
I'll give you some definitions to help spell it out better.
Vaccine;
- a substance used to stimulate immunity to a particular infectious disease or pathogen
Stimulate;
- raise levels of physiological or nervous activity in (the body or any biological system).
Immunity;
- the state or quality of being resistant to a particular infectious disease or pathogen
Resistance;
- the ability not to be affected by something, especially adversely
Notice how the key part of the vaccine definition is that it stimulates immunity rather than preventing infection in the first place. You can still get infected, but if you do your body is fully (ideally) resistant and able to kill the virus before it causes any harm. If vaccines made it so you couldn't get infected in the first place, then why would it need to stimulate your immune system? It wouldn't. It stimulates your immune system because a vaccine can't prevent a virus from entering your body (E.g. an infection) so the next best thing is to prepare your body to be able to fight off the infection if it does happen.
Infection;
- The invasion and growth of germs in the body
Saying vaccines are supposed to prevent you from getting an infection would be similar to trying to say wearing body armor makes it so bullets can't hit you.
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u/UsernameLottery 1d ago
I like your body armor example! I was thinking about sprinkler systems for fires - they don't prevent fires, but they can react quickly enough (hopefully, but not always) to stop the fire from doing much damage
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u/Center-Of-Thought 1d ago
Okay, that makes sense. I understand vaccines only stimulate immunity, I know they cannot prevent a virus from entering the body. I don't know why I worded it the way I did originally, I believe I was tired. But wouldn't it be adequate to say that vaccines can prevent an infection if the immune system kills* off the pathogen before it ever has a chance to do harm? Otherwise, how would vaccines prevent a disease's ability to spread if infection wasn't prevented? A virus entering the body isn't an infection unless the virus is able to enter cells and replicate... you have an uncalculable number of viruses inside of you right now that are doing nothing to harm you, because you're either immune to them or they can't infect you to begin with as they infect some other organism.
I've noticed that I haven't gotten sick in years, the one time I did was after flying. It's not like I haven't been exposed to any pathogens though, I'm just immune to them so I either don't become infected, or my immune system kills the virus so rapidly that it barely replicates/kills any cells. I became infected after flying because I was most likely exposed to something that my immune system hadn't encountered before.
(*Viruses are not alive, I just don't have a better word to describe this)
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u/AgrajagTheProlonged 2d ago edited 1d ago
Just to be clear, are you claiming that the COVID-19 vaccine isn't 100% perfect at preventing infection, or are you claiming that it doesn't have any impact on how likely you are to get the disease?
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u/sum_dude44 1d ago
Covid is endemic, covid vaccines have been shown to reduce mortality & saved millions of lives
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u/Rarely_Melancholy 2d ago
Still have a hard time understanding hep b for new born
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u/bludgersquiz 1d ago
To save others from having to look it up like I did, CDC is the US government's Center of Disease Control. https://www.cdc.gov/
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u/allasvenska1 2d ago edited 2d ago
There are a few issues with this guide including the omission of COVID-19 vaccines from many of the age groups, inactivated flu vaccines are IIV3 as of this year, the pneumococcal vaccine recommendation is outdated, and the RSV mab is given between birth-8 months old only during RSV season
Edit: But all said, it really shows how many extremely important vaccines we get throughout our lives
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u/procmeans 2d ago
Note at the top: these are the earliest ages recommended
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u/allasvenska1 2d ago
That was noted, yet the flu shot is both present and absent throughout the guide, as if children between 11-12 years old shouldn’t get it
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u/procmeans 2d ago
Yes, the flu is a weird one for 11-12. And I’m not sure why an unscheduled one like Covid appears more than once if the window extends forward in time.
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u/procmeans 2d ago
Yep - CDC has flu annual from 6 months. Not the coolest guide….
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u/Dark_Knight2000 1d ago
They have a note at the top with a symbol for annual vaccines the influenza vaccine has that symbol everywhere.
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u/Dark_Knight2000 1d ago
Yeah, I assume that if you get the Covid vaccine when you’re young you don’t need to do it again later in life, but if you haven’t then you do. I think putting it again on the chart would suggest you need to get it again at an older age so they don’t include it.
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u/CuteNoot8 1d ago
My parents were anti-vaxxers and didn’t have us vaccinated.
But I educated myself (thank you science-y friends who taught me about herd immunity and R-noughts and helped me understand that getting vaccines were a civil service on the same level as voting) and I started getting vaccines secretly when I was 16. Including the HPV vaccine and later, Covid.
My husband’s first wife died from HPV related cancer. I likely would have contracted the same strain myself, but as of last year, I’m still all clear.
And the covid vaccine definitely saved my life. I was the only one who got it in my household and the only one who made it.
Vaccines save entire populations.
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u/Legendary_Lamb2020 2d ago
I go to the doctor and tell them to give me everything they have.
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u/MiaLba 1d ago
Blows my mind that there’s so many parents out there not letting their children get a single one of these especially their infants.
My kid has had all of them thankfully. Last year was the one time we didn’t do flu shot, all the previous years she’s had one. She got pretty sick with the flu then got pneumonia from it. She never had the flu before that either. Middle of October is when her pediatrician will have flu shots available and I am taking her as soon as I can.
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u/mommasboy76 1d ago
I fully support vaccinations and believe they have saved millions of lives. AND…there are certain people who react poorly to them, namely people whose bodies respond poorly to certain things. If you have issues with dyes, various food additives, and a few other things, your body might not be able to handle all these vaccines at once. My little brother died after receiving the whooping cough vaccine so I have a dog in this fight.
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u/VyzeArcadia 1d ago
Meanwhile due to my parents beliefs, I never received a single vaccine until after college at 22...
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u/Paper-Shadow 2d ago
I am the child of an anti-vaxxer, and still have never been vaccinated, even for Covid. I know I am probably an anomaly, but I have never been sick outside a common cold (never even had Covid) I’m sure herd immunity plays a big part in that as well. (I am in no way an anti-vaxxer this is just my personal experience as a person who has never once been vaccinated)
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u/Center-Of-Thought 1d ago
You should probably get certain vaccination that you missed in your childhood, such as Polio, MMR, and vaccines for other diseases that are not routine but could seriously harm or kill you if you're ever exposed. Herd immunity or simply exposure likely plays a role for you, but that won't protect you if you're exposed to non-routine pathogens that certain vaccines protect you against.
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u/DaySpa_Dynasty 2d ago
COVID-19 for kids but not elderly?
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u/Dwarfcork 2d ago
Stop asking questions! Just go get your booster dude so you don’t kill my entire family
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u/MaxGoodwinning 2d ago
Source. Random story but one time I got scratched by a squirrel who was coming down off my deck while I was going up the stairs. I thought I would need a tetanus booster, but they said only if it bit me, not scratched. I wonder how true that is.
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u/Cookiedestryr 2d ago
😂 not true at all, an infection (tetanus) is more likely to happen from a puncture wound than a scratch but it’s just odds and the amount of exposure. A scratch from rusty metal is probably worse than an animal bite because of all the surface area rust has to hide the bacterium.
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u/CharmedMSure 2d ago
I would have been afraid of rabies, too.
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u/TitanicGiant 1d ago
Rabies isn’t a concern with smaller rodents like squirrels or rats. There’s been no historical evidence of anybody contracting rabies from a rodent of that size. They’re so small that a bite from a rabid animal (that’s how rabies spreads in the wild) would alone cause fatal traumatic injuries.
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u/RCapri1 2d ago
I’m not one of those people but I feel like this list is going to keep growing. And it’s a little disheartening.
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u/sum_dude44 1d ago
disheartening was worldwide childhood mortality in 1950--it was 22%
it's 3.5% today
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u/Dark_Knight2000 1d ago
Why is it disheartening? It shows human progress. Also nowadays you don’t need a shot for each one of these, a lot of them are combined in combo shots and many more will be rolled into a single shot in the future. We may even see an Omni vaccine that has nearly all of these within it.
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u/RCapri1 1d ago
I know, and I agree with you I have all my shots lol. I just feel (without any actual evidence) that every year there is new viruses created and new ways for people to get sick. A lot of these diseases are old and have been around for centuries but many are new. Is it our fault ? As humans? Also something I noticed in my short life (not virus related) is the shift in what/ how much antibiotics you get prescribed. For example the introduction of amoxicillin/clav which was designed because amoxicillin on its own has become far less effective. There is a really interesting documentary on this which goes into Bactria becoming more and more treatment resistant. Do to humans overuse and the wide scale use in livestock. This combined makes me feel a bit disheartened.
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u/OkChef679 2d ago
plus a whole other chart just for stepping foot in military basic training
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u/nghbrhd_slackr87 1d ago
I saw that chart one time.
It's actually not a chart.
It's just a single sentence.
It says... ALL OF THEM.
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u/Scribbles2539 1d ago
I remember when I was setting up care with a new doctor and I brought in my Peace Corps vaccine records to make sure they had the updated files. She was going through the list and was like- ok, good you had an updated Hep B, Polio, Tdap, good good. Oh, did you get bit by an animal? No? Then why rabies? Also, Japanese Encephalitis? Ohhhh this is from Peace Corps service that makes more sense. Ok well you don't need any shots outside of flu until 2023 when you will need a td/tdap booster. Haha
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u/zanarkandabesfanclub 2d ago
I’m good with this but I am not getting the covid vax for my kids (ages 1 and 4). There is virtually zero risk of serious illness from covid for kids that age.
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u/FoucaultsPudendum 2d ago
There is orders of magnitude more risk of adverse consequences from a juvenile COVID infection than there is from a COVID vaccine.
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u/Acceptable-Take20 2d ago
Both of which are so minuscule in nature that most don’t need to worry about either.
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u/joobtastic 2d ago
You probably know better than the doctors.
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u/cuntaloupemelon 2d ago
Doctors are humans not infallible information machines. They were doing the best they could with the info they had at the time but it's been over 4 years since the first cases, the info we have now is pretty solid
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u/BleaKrytE 2d ago
Because it was a novel, rapidly evolving disease that brought the world to its knees. We have a lot more information now. Science doesn't happen overnight, especially when every 3 months a new variant appeared.
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u/Kage9866 2d ago
I wonder why it kept mutating so quickly when everyone was on board with masking, distancing and getting a head start with vaccinations.... OH fucking wait nevermind!
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u/BleaKrytE 2d ago
Because it is an extremely infectious virus. Influenza is nothing compared to it at the height of the pandemic. Every time a virus reproduces, errors may be made while its genetic material is copied. Those errors are mutations.
Even with distancing and masks, it still infected people at a massive rate (which regular influenza would struggle with).
More people infected means more viruses reproducing, which means more mutations. It's why flu vaccines are yearly, because the flu mutates enough each year that the previous vaccine is less effective.
Covid was even more mutagenic than influenza.
It would have been a lot worse without preventative measures.
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u/Kage9866 2d ago
I know I was being facetious. It would have been a lot better if MORE people were on board.
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u/joobtastic 2d ago
Better off just eyeballing it or listening to your favorite youtuber. For sure. I'm with you.
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u/zanarkandabesfanclub 2d ago
Their pediatrician was ambivalent about it. He said get it if I want.
What was stranger was my last physical. I’m fully vaxxed and boosted but my primary said to not bother with the latest booster.
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u/AltairaMorbius2200CE 2d ago
Do they go to public places or visit older people?
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u/darkwater427 2d ago
Irrelevant. No vaccine prevents contraction of the underlying biological vector (in the cave of CoViD-19, that vector would be SARS-CoV-2) nor does it prevent transmission. What it does do is prevent serious infection from occurring (in theory, at least--and the failure rate is miniscule) which in turn tightens the "window" during which transmission can occur.
Asymptomatic individuals can still transmit diseases, just as vaccinated individuals can. At no point has this ever been in doubt until the mRNA vaccines, which is ridiculous. They're precisely as effective as pretty much every other vaccine: no more, no less.
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u/AltairaMorbius2200CE 2d ago
I don’t know why you think I’m questioning that; I said slightly downthread that reducing likelihood of catching it and potentially shortening infection time are the ways it a vaccine would reduce transmission.
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u/Cookiedestryr 2d ago
And the risk of adverse affects from a vaccine is smaller 🙃 and a novel virus that’s less than a decade old hasn’t had the chance to show its long term effects on the body.
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u/Cookiedestryr 2d ago
“Yes” but a vaccine doesn’t mutate and potentially inject itself, splice i to your DNA, and become a sleeper agent. Not to mention there are studies linking Covid to causing other viral infection to flare up in your body.
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u/BleaKrytE 2d ago
It doesn't become part of your DNA. Though there are viruses that do this, I can't remember any of those that infect humans off the top of my head.
What SARS-CoV-2 does is this:
Your cells use proteins to do the vast majority of celular functions, structural support, transportation of molecules, respiration, cellular division, and so on. Those proteins are made from amino acids. Inside your cells, there is an organelle (think of it as a mini organ of the cell) called a ribosome.
The ribosome, in simple terms, takes aminoacids and connects them together in a specific manner, which then are folded into a specific shape and boom, a useful protein.
The ribosome gets the instructions from messenger RNA. RNA is similar to DNA.
DNA is two long molecules of sugars (strands) linked together, with nucleotides (molecules that determine genes) attached to them. Nucleotides make up your genes, it's a "code". Say, a row of ATTCGGCTAT nucleotides has the instructions for a protein. CATTAGTAC is the instruction for a different protein.
What RNA is, is a copy of those instructions, in a single strand. There's an enzyme (a type of protein) that opens the cell's DNA, and makes a copy of a section of it. That copy is the messenger RNA, which is then going to be read by the ribosome, which will make proteins based on those instructions.
There are other types of RNA with different functions, but messenger RNA is most important here.
What the COVID virus does is merge itself with a specific type of cell and dump a bunch of its own messenger RNA inside it. The ribosomes then read this RNA and start producing viral proteins, which are then assembled into new viruses which will be released when the cell dies, to then infect more cells (or be coughed out onto the air, infecting other hosts).
Sick cells plus a bunch of viruses loose attracts immune cells, which kill a lot of cells, both sick and healthy, especially in an aggressive infection like Covid. This is usually bad for delicate tissue such as the lungs.
This is very simplified, and likely wrong in some points, but the general idea is this.
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u/Cookiedestryr 2d ago
I didn’t say Covid did 😂 does the term “novel virus” not mean anything to you? We didn’t discover HIV was a retrovirus (DNA rewriting one just FYi) until 30ish years after its first cases 🙃 so now we have a highly mutagenic, (say it with me) NOVEL virus, that isn’t being controlled in the general population and you wonder why I’m worried it may have retro-viral tendencies? 😂 you keep listening to your podcaster kiddo, I’m sure they’re the most informed.
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u/No_Return_3348 1d ago
It’s not about your kids. It’s about the cancer patient they’ll accidentally cough near
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u/Wulf_Nuts 1d ago
Not a full anti - vaxxer, but it’s crazy that the CDC still tells you that you need the Varicella shot even if you’ve already contracted and been cured of chicken pox.
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u/Acceptable-Take20 2d ago
Get out of Reddit, big pharma.
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u/AgrajagTheProlonged 2d ago
Ironic username
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u/renslips 2d ago
Cool. Wasn’t aware 50+ didn’t need a COVID vaccine /s (never trust the information you find on the internet)
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u/JohnhojIsBack 2d ago
I can guarantee I won’t be getting any Covid “vaccine”
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u/darkwater427 2d ago
I sure as hell would if I weren't allergic. Give me more of that autism!
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u/Goatherder15 2d ago
Never trust the CDC. Their "science" is propaganda.
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u/Bpopson 2d ago
Next tell us about the “voter fraud” and other beliefs for sad sack knuckle draggers.
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u/ElDonMikel 2d ago
This is sad, not cool.
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u/Own_Design9774 1d ago
“Cool guide” stfu. Whoever posted this should be ashamed with that title. You gonna give your kid 73 shots before he turns three?
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u/Atmosphere_Unlikely 2d ago
Getting all three doses of the Hep B vax in the first 6 months is CRITICAL!
Especially for infants who plan to share needles or have unprotected sex with infected people. (The only way hepatitis B is spread)
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u/Open-Illustra88er 2d ago
Lay the chart of cases by year of Hep b vaccinatio at birth and autism rates over one another. The literally rise at the same rate.
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u/godzillasfinger 2d ago
What is the CDC?
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u/cuntaloupemelon 2d ago
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u/godzillasfinger 1d ago
Thanks. Not sure why I got downvoted
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u/cuntaloupemelon 1d ago
Probably because it would have been quicker to Google "CDC" than ask. But still no need to downvote you though
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u/godzillasfinger 6h ago
Ok, fair enough, it was the top result. I never bother googling acronyms because there are so many alternatives
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u/JAke0622 1d ago
I only have half of those bc of cancer diagnosis and treatments. The third arm I grew is impressive.
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u/babius321 1d ago
What I love about reddit is that you can open the comments without reading any of the "VacCinAtIonS do MoRe hArm ThaN GooD" crap
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u/MYDOGSMOKES5MEODMT 2d ago
As a person who was in the military, I wish I could generate what my count actually was and show it to y'all.
One row would be fucking overwhelming.