That's an over-simplified understanding of the concept of viruses, vaccines and how they work
If you are unprotected viruses get inside (maybe through your nose or mouth into your breathing system) and start infecting your cells. They use the cell's functions to make more copies of themselves and then the cell dies and bursts and all the new viruses get out of the dead cell and try to infect other cells. This is what the snot and phlegm of flu and colds, or covid is all about, and it is why you feel so rank or have a horrible sore throat. Your cells are actually being killed. Phlegm is mucous and dead cells being removed and coughed up. The greener it is the more dead cells are in it. If you have not had the particular disease before, your immune system takes time to recognise that there is a problem and is a bit slow to get really cranked up to destroy the millions of virus particles that are inside your cells. This gives the virus a free pass to mess you up badly. This is why when Europeans went to the Americas millions of natives died of ordinary diseases we Europeans had been dealing with for ages with o bother. They had never seen these bugs before. They had no immunity. We start getting immunity from our mothers and their milk and we build on it throughout our lives. But if a virus is entirely new like Sars-Covi-2 was in 2019/20 we are in the same position as the Native Americans were when Columbus and the rest turned up with all their old European bugs and plagues. People die in droves.
Usually - you will get on top of most virus diseases yourself, but some viruses are so virulent, that they will make you gravely ill, and leave you dead, or badly damaged. Think of Derek Draper - not an old man - not an especially fat man and not a sick man, but utterly wrecked by covid and now dead (Kate Garaway's husband. I actually met him once as it happens). The world over - millions of people died of covid and many were badly harmed.
Once you have had a virus and recovered - vaccinated or not, you will be able to fight it off most likely if it or a variant comes along again. But viruses mutate at pretty rapid rate so after a bit, the next time the virus comes into your lungs or nose or whatever, it won't be quite the same and you may find it getting a good hold on your system before you immune system gets to grips with it.
So - vaccination is about presenting the body before you are exposed to a virus with a dead version of the virus, or a bit of its DNA which causes your body to muster new defences in advance to fight off the invasion of microbes when they come. The vaccine doesn't kill the virus - it warns and prepares YOUR OWN IMMUNE SYSTEM to fight the virus when it comes,
Individual differences in the population mean people get different levels of protection, either through natural infection or vaccination, because the protection comes from their own immune system, albeit primed to spot the dangerous organism. - but when vaccinated they are not likely to get gravely ill.
Not always true though. People with compromised immune systems, people on some serious medications, or with certain conditions, or just the very old people have compromised immune systems and even when vaccinated will get seriously ill and some die.
Another thing is that some bugs like Covid -19 evolve very fast and the vaccine you got five years ago, if you did get one, is no longer ideal for getting your body to recognise the new variant. The Covid -19 of 2024 is not the same virus as it was five years ago. It has changed enough to have some capability of evading the old vaccine, so new vaccine variants have been produced to better match the way the newer versions of the bug present to the cells of the body.
Its the same with anti-biotics which we use to fight off bacteria. They eventually evolve changes which help them get away from our treatments. The very very short life cycle of microbes makes them able to have thousands of generations in no time at all, so evolution helps them change and escape our treatments. THAT is why to retain protection, you need more jabs with adapted, newer vaccines and this is why even vaccinated and pretty healthy people get the covid again. The point is though that on a population level, there are very few now who get it so badly as it was in the first outbreak. Even getting it mildly is not nice. I've had tinnitus ever since I got it.
But it can fk people up big time - especially if they are older like us and since I am pretty much having a ball in my life, I'm up for a quick stick with a tiny needle so I don't get the thing again, or if I do get it, it won't be bad dose.
Friday - 11.30 am. What's not to like?