Sterilizing immunity: the latest anti-vaccine rallying cry. A real thing co-opted by anti-vaxxers to undermine vaccines.
By anti-vax logic, if a vaccine doesn’t block all infections, it’s a “failure.”
MOST vaccines don’t elicit sterilizing immunity. No one pretends they do.
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By anti-vax logic, if a vaccine doesn’t block all infections, it’s a “failure.”
MOST vaccines don’t elicit sterilizing immunity. No one pretends they do.
1/
This isn’t just immunologically wrong; it’s a tactic to erode trust in vaccines & harm public health.
Vaccines life-saving developments of modern medicine, not magical forcefields.
This all-or-nothing attitude doesn’t exist for anything else, so why does it for vaccines?
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Vaccines life-saving developments of modern medicine, not magical forcefields.
This all-or-nothing attitude doesn’t exist for anything else, so why does it for vaccines?
2/
Chemotherapies & immunotherapies don’t guarantee cancer remission, but they dramatically improve odds & increase survival rates.
Would you say “You got cancer again, so chemo didn’t work” to someone whose cancer came back after ten years in remission?
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Would you say “You got cancer again, so chemo didn’t work” to someone whose cancer came back after ten years in remission?
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Blood pressure medications don’t prevent every stroke or heart attack, but they reduce the risk and occurrence of them dramatically.
Antibiotics don’t eliminate every bacterial infection, but they save millions of lives.
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Antibiotics don’t eliminate every bacterial infection, but they save millions of lives.
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Seatbelts don’t prevent car crashes.
They prevent you from flying through the windshield if a crash occurs, reducing risk of death & serious injuries.
Umbrellas don’t always prevent you from getting, but they prevent you from being drenched in a storm: they did their job.
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They prevent you from flying through the windshield if a crash occurs, reducing risk of death & serious injuries.
Umbrellas don’t always prevent you from getting, but they prevent you from being drenched in a storm: they did their job.
5/
Vaccines are no different; just like seatbelts, airbags, and other medications, they are risk mitigation measures that we know are effective.
But we know NONE of these things are always effective.
Vaccines must be viewed the same.
Read more:

🧵news.immunologic.org/p/moving-the-v…
But we know NONE of these things are always effective.
Vaccines must be viewed the same.
Read more:

🧵news.immunologic.org/p/moving-the-v…
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