Flu shots, should they be required?

[Stradawhovious]

I'd never heard of the human preventative vaccine either, but I'm not an animal control officer, veterinarian or bat guano researcher.

That sucks. I hear bat guano researchers make bank, yo.

 

[Stradawhovious]

My sister's married to a doctor and I've taken photographs of them. I've also seen some pictures taken by doctors.

This whole post is just hilariously creepy.

 

[Designer]

i think the fact that flu vaccines only carry 3-4 strains a year is a bit /r/conspiracy.

If they tried to produce a vaccine that contained ALL of the known variants:

1. It would be horribly expensive.
2. They would probably still miss a few.
3. It would still have to be repeated every year.

The medical community likes to bank on statistics. If they can show that MORE people would NOT get the flu than got the flu, then the vaccine is "worth the risks".

As long as the chance of risk remains at a low percentage.

 

[qleak]

If they tried to produce a vaccine that contained ALL of the known variants:

1. It would be horribly expensive.
2. They would probably still miss a few.
3. It would still have to be repeated every year.

The medical community likes to bank on statistics. If they can show that MORE people would NOT get the flu than got the flu, then the vaccine is "worth the risks".

As long as the chance of risk remains at a low percentage.

Correct I would add:

4) influenza mutates quickly enough that even if the vaccine covered all the variants when they produced it there would still likely be a few new strains that wouldn't be covered.

 

[Braineack]

outlaw mutants.

 

[Stradawhovious]

outlaw mutants.

That doesn't work.

You obviously haven't see the X-Men movies.

 

[pgriz]

It's actually more complicated than that. We usually think of cell reproduction involving the copying of genes to make new genes. But the process is far from perfect, and the cells have evolved a variety of mechanisms to destroy bad copies. However, errors do slip through, and the daughter gene may now have an incorrect sequence that was not caught by the checking mechanisms. If that sequence is in a non-coding part of the gene, then it may not be "expressed" (translated into a protein, or functioning as a regulatory strand). If it is in an expressed portion, then again it may not necessarily cause problems if the code change resulted in a similar amino acid being incorporated into the protein. Not all gene codes result in an amino acid being selected for production, so a mis-copy may mean that an amino acid subunit is omitted from the protein that the gene codes for.

Other ways mutations can happen include damage to the genetic material (either DNA or RNA) by UV, ionizing radiation, oxidation, or chemical attack, by damage to the transcribing units, or by the insertion of gene sequences by viral or bacterial infective agents. For a mutation to be inheritable, it needs to happen within the stem cells that reside in the gonads (either testes or ovaries) from which the sperm or eggs are derived. For example, the herpex simplex virus incorporates its genome into the nucleus of certain nerve cells, and once the original infection is over, the virus is latent (hidden) as a gene sequence in the nerve cell. However, from time to time, those gene sections may become expressed, and new viral proteins (and viruses) get produced. Since the infection does NOT happen in the gonad stem cells, those will not pass on the herpes simplex virus to the children.

Some genetic engineering tools use the ability of viruses to insert their genes, where the desired genes are incorporated into a virus-like assembly which is then allowed to infect the target cell. However, most gene insertions are not functional, as the insertion mechanism is somewhat random, and there has to be a winnowing out of the resulting progeny to find the one(s) where the gene was inserted in the right place.

Braineack, we're all mutants. So is every living thing on this planet.

 

[limr]

Braineack, we're all mutants. So is every living thing on this planet.

I KNEW IT!!!

 

[Braineack]

Braineack, we're all mutants. So is every living thing on this planet.

I need a better way for people to be able to distinguish my hyperbole from my actual thoughts.

 

[pgriz]

Braineack, we're all mutants. So is every living thing on this planet.

I need a better way for people to be able to distinguish my hyperbole from my actual thoughts.

A high proportion of emoticons is usually a good tip-off...

 

[Braineack]

Then people might confuse me for e.rose.

 

[pgriz]

Then people might confuse me for e.rose.

I could think of worse comparisons.

It almost goes with out saying that the "seriousness" of the post diminishes proportionally to the ratio of emoticons to actual words.

 

[minicoop1985]

I shot a machine gun (legally) owned by a doctor. That was cool. Didn't know it was fully automatic until I pulled the trigger, and the doctor laughed at my reaction.

 

[Stradawhovious]

I shot a machine gun (legally) owned by a doctor. That was cool. Didn't know it was fully automatic until I pulled the trigger, and the doctor laughed at my reaction.

Dangerously hilarious.

 

[minicoop1985]

If it makes everyone feel better, I kept it aimed downrange and didn't kill anyone that time.