Oh right yeah so, a lot of diseases includeing the flu are caused by little tiny living organisms, called germs. tehcnically they're either viruses or bacteria, bacteria are jsut a specific category of tiny little living things, viruses are
Actually there's some debate about whetrhere viruses are alive? But we're gonna assume they are for now, and the flu's caused by a virus
So anywy most germs actually won't hurt yo uat all, but some will; when those ones get into our bodies, there are tiny little pieces of OUR bodies that make up the immune system, which tries to kill the germs so they can't hurt us. A lot of symptoms when you get sick are actually taht immune repsonse, like my fever is bcause humans can survive higher temperatures than germs so my body's tyring to cook the germs to death
The problem is if your body hasn't encounered a specific kind of germ before ithas more trouble fighting it - like if you wre fighting someone with a weapon you weren't familar with i guess? And the flu virus changes really really fast so eaach year there are different kinds of it that your body has to get used to all over again
Which is where vaccines come in. a vaccine is kind of like a sample of dead or really weakened germs that are put into your body so your immune system knwos what those look like, and can fight them better; a lot of the time if you get a vaccine and then you're infected with that specifc kind of flu you won't get sick at all becauseyour body knows how to kill ti right away, but een if youdo get sick it probbly won't last as long or be as bad. Dimitri asked if it was kind of like pracicing fighting wit ha training dummy and i think that's pretty clsoe?
So it takes a bit for the vaccine to work since you're body's gotta practice with it and learn to fight the thing, and als o people often get a minor version ofthe symptoms because, again, that's the immune resposne going off, but it generally only lasts a day or two
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Oh right yeah so, a lot of diseases includeing the flu are caused by little tiny living organisms, called germs. tehcnically they're either viruses or bacteria, bacteria are jsut a specific category of tiny little living things, viruses are
Actually there's some debate about whetrhere viruses are alive? But we're gonna assume they are for now, and the flu's caused by a virus
So anywy most germs actually won't hurt yo uat all, but some will; when those ones get into our bodies, there are tiny little pieces of OUR bodies that make up the immune system, which tries to kill the germs so they can't hurt us. A lot of symptoms when you get sick are actually taht immune repsonse, like my fever is bcause humans can survive higher temperatures than germs so my body's tyring to cook the germs to death
The problem is if your body hasn't encounered a specific kind of germ before ithas more trouble fighting it - like if you wre fighting someone with a weapon you weren't familar with i guess? And the flu virus changes really really fast so eaach year there are different kinds of it that your body has to get used to all over again
Which is where vaccines come in. a vaccine is kind of like a sample of dead or really weakened germs that are put into your body so your immune system knwos what those look like, and can fight them better; a lot of the time if you get a vaccine and then you're infected with that specifc kind of flu you won't get sick at all becauseyour body knows how to kill ti right away, but een if youdo get sick it probbly won't last as long or be as bad. Dimitri asked if it was kind of like pracicing fighting wit ha training dummy and i think that's pretty clsoe?
So it takes a bit for the vaccine to work since you're body's gotta practice with it and learn to fight the thing, and als o people often get a minor version ofthe symptoms because, again, that's the immune resposne going off, but it generally only lasts a day or two