Ways To Build Immunity In The News

Directionsways To Build Immunity Have Come To The News Forefront Duri

Ways to build immunity have come to the news forefront during the COVID-19 pandemic. While vaccines to build immunity are not new concepts, variations in mechanism of action vary based on the target pathogen. Initial Post View Understanding how COVID-19 vaccines work. After reading your assigned textbook reading for this module and the assigned article, describe what kind of immunity COVID-19 vaccines provide, and how this is different than a flu vaccine. Be sure to support your positions with APA formatted in-text citations and references from the assigned resource.

Reply Post In your reply post, share how your understanding of COVID-19 and flu vaccine-induced immunity are similar or different than a peer’s post. Support your position with the assigned resource, as well as any other credible resources of your own selection. Reference(s) National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. (2021, March 9). Understanding how COVID-19 vaccines work. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Paper For Above instruction

The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically highlighted the importance of understanding immunity and the role vaccines play in preventing infectious diseases. The nature of immunity generated by COVID-19 vaccines differs significantly from that produced by seasonal influenza vaccines, primarily in terms of the immune response mechanisms and duration of protection. This paper discusses the types of immunity provided by COVID-19 vaccines and contrasts these with the immunity conferred by influenza vaccines, supported by current scientific understanding and authoritative sources.

COVID-19 vaccines primarily induce both humoral (antibody-mediated) and cellular immune responses. The most widely used COVID-19 vaccines, such as the mRNA vaccines (Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna), utilize genetic materials that instruct cells to produce the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, prompting the immune system to recognize and respond to this viral component (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2021). The immune response includes the production of neutralizing antibodies that can recognize and block the virus from infecting cells, along with T-cell responses that help eliminate infected cells and provide protection against severe disease.

This dual activation of immune pathways — humoral and cellular — ensures a comprehensive immune response, which is crucial for neutralizing the virus and preventing illness (Poland et al., 2020). Notably, the immune memory generated by COVID-19 vaccines can last for months, although ongoing research indicates that booster doses may be necessary to sustain immunity, especially in light of emerging variants (Dai & Gao, 2021). The nature of these vaccines offers the ability to induce long-lasting immunity, particularly through the generation of memory B and T cells.

In contrast, the seasonal influenza vaccine predominantly stimulates humoral immunity through the production of strain-specific neutralizing antibodies. The influenza vaccine, often an inactivated or attenuated virus, primarily targets hemagglutinin and neuraminidase surface antigens to provoke antibody responses (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2021). Because influenza viruses rapidly mutate, the vaccine's effectiveness can vary annually, and its protection tends to diminish over the course of a flu season, necessitating yearly reformulation and vaccination.

Furthermore, flu vaccines do not typically evoke as robust or long-lasting cellular immunity as COVID-19 vaccines. Inactivated flu vaccines generate primarily antibody responses with limited T-cell activation, which contributes to the relatively short duration of immunity—usually around six months (Belongia et al., 2017). Live attenuated influenza vaccines can induce broader immune responses, including mucosal immunity, but are generally less effective in certain populations like the elderly.

The differences in immune responses between COVID-19 and flu vaccines are rooted in the pathogenesis of the viruses and the mechanisms employed in vaccine design. The mRNA and vector-based COVID-19 vaccines aim to mimic natural infection more effectively, stimulating broad immunity. Meanwhile, influenza vaccines focus on inducing rapid antibody responses against highly variable surface proteins, accommodating the virus's rapid antigenic drift and shift (Krammer, 2019).

In conclusion, COVID-19 vaccines provide a combination of humoral and cellular immunity that can potentially offer longer-lasting and more comprehensive protection compared to the primarily antibody-focused immunity induced by seasonal influenza vaccines. Understanding these differences underscores the importance of selecting appropriate vaccination strategies tailored to the pathogen's characteristics and the immune mechanisms they stimulate.

References

• Belongia, E. A., Skowronski, D. M., Simonsen, L., & McLean, H. Q. (2017). Influenza vaccine effectiveness: defining the knowledge gaps and how to fill them. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 65(9), 1465-1470.
• Dai, L., & Gao, G. F. (2021). Viral targets for vaccines against COVID-19. Nature Reviews Immunology, 21(2), 73-82.
• Krammer, F. (2019). The human antibody response to influenza A virus infection and vaccination. Nature Reviews Immunology, 19(6), 383-397.
• Poland, G. A., Ovsyannikova, I. G., Kennedy, R. B., & Haralambieva, I. H. (2020). SARS-CoV-2 immunity and vaccine development. The Journal of Clinical Investigation, 130(8), 3547-3550.
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2021, March 9). Understanding how COVID-19 vaccines work. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/conversations-overview.html