The way a vaccine works is it stimulates the production of antibodies but the vaccine is attenuated so it will not do any harm excepting side effects. The body has several weeks to build up immunity. The vaccine itself does not fight off the virus, it is your body's own antibodies which do that.

The real disease does the same thing as far as antibody production but also has harmful effects.

But it is exactly those type of questions 'What if we did this?' that lead science forward. Good question, Sal.

Good question, Not sure if it would help lessen the symptoms since it takes weeks for your body to "build up immunity" after receiving the vaccine. Interested in hearing what others think.

I would worry that it would make things worse. Most vaccines make the body develop antibodies. It appears that the worst type is triggering the body's immune system to go into overdrive. Think of the various autoimmune diseases such as MS and Lupus where it is the immune system going into overdrive that causes the problems.

There will be people who are not aware that they have the virus that will take the shots and they should be the ones that science and the medical profession do long term tracking.

thanks, just wondering.

COVID vaccines do not fight the virus head on but induce an immune response via antibodies which bind to the virus’ spikes and render them incapable to bind/infect healthy cells. Your body T cells then clear the virus and any infected cells. The process of inducing an immune response takes time, usually around a week to 10 days, so COVID vaccines are not indicated for COVID patients. Their chance of survival is better with other treatment regimens.

No, it's not a curative, it's a preventative.

My questions: Were 'positive cases' included in the vaccine testing? Are these 'positives' candidates for the vaccine?

We do not know how long immunity persists in vaccinated individuals, nor in unvaccinated people who have at some point tested positive (whether or not they became ill with the virus).

Vaccines supposedly provide 95% immunity levels for an indeterminate length of time, whereas 'positives' can have low levels -- which evidently lessen within a few months to where no antibidies can be detected.

My simplified thinking is that your body learns to recognize Covid as a bad guy by the little spikes it has on its outer layer. The vaccines work by telling your body to make JUST THE LITTLE SPIKES, releasing them into your body so that your immune system can learn "little spike" = "bad guy" without being endangered by an actual whole virus. So ... if you're already fighting an active Covid infection, why would you want extra "little spikes" in your system when you already have (plenty of) "real" spikes on actual virus?

But that's my guesswork, NOT from any actual scientist!

as you have probably guessed already--I'm not too good in science, lol

Science is all about asking questions, so perhaps you are better at science than you think. 😊

On the news it said, that it wouldn't do that--because it is a protein not a live vaccine. I'm not all science-y but that was what they said.

Medications used to treat acute COVID may make the vaccine ineffective or less effective.

Meanwhile a strain has already appeared in Britain that is different enough in a key way that it may not be affected by existing vaccines.

That strain is interesting it is being said it is more virulent but does not have as bad of outcome. Which on one hand is good. I am concerned about what is not being said about it. Some of the areas that now have it were hard hit before which while that does not mean the same people are having this new strain it has been around about a month now and the experts should know.

I was watching Beau today and he mentioned a side affect that has been known for some time, at least two months but listed toward the bottom of the possible side effects on the site I saw it. If someone had actually noticed and mentioned it there probably would be little difficulty getting men to mask up. Some things are more precious to them than their lives.

The clinical trials did not vaccinate people with active, symptomatic cases of COVID-19. They did include people who didn’t know that they had had COVID. They measured COVID antibodies prior to giving the first dose of the investigational vaccine and some people had those antibodies.

^^^Are you talking about this Covid complication? https://www.health.com/condition/infectious-diseases/coronavirus/covid-erectile-dysfunction

Yes. However the information has been available for several months. The way Houzz is with disappearing posts I did not want to use any descriptive words for the problem.

@mdln - I have a question about the vaccine(s) that I hope you can answer. I know that the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines function in essentially the same way, and that both vaccines require a second shot (Pfizer's 21 days after the first, and Moderna's 28 days after the first). I also know that it doesn't work to "mix" them -- that is, if you get the first shot of one brand, the second shot must be of the same brand.

OK, now a bit of background to my question. Last night on one of the news programs, they started by talking about the polio vaccine and how the Salk vaccine was given by injection, and years later when the Sabin vaccine was introduced, it was taken orally - most popularly added to a sugar cube given to children. One of the newscasters said that he knew that even if people had already been given the Salk vaccine injection, they were encouraged to also take the Sabin vaccine.

My question is this -- do you know whether or not (once a large enough supply is available) folks should take both the Pfizer and the Moderna vaccines?

I'm wondering, in the light of this, whether one should have a test before taking the vaccine?

As for you, sal 60 Hanslik, ask lots of questions - it helps cultivate your mind! That's one of the major components of the science game!

I've often said that it's a poor day in which one doesn't learn something!

ole joyful

I don't know if this will help in any way to answer your question, but here is some information about the vaccine itself sent out by our family physician a few weeks back. I'm copying a portion of the message. This explains why it is a 2-part vaccine.

'This is a messenger RNA vaccine. A little review on genetics. Our genetic material is made up of DNA. This is then utilized to make messenger RNA which goes to translational RNA and makes the protein for our bodies. Messenger RNA is not part of our genetic code. The vaccine uses a new technology wherein you are injected with messenger RNA into your muscles which then produce a protein that is part of the virus (this does not produce the virus) which then your body has an initial reaction to. The booster vaccine into the area within markedly amplifies this creating a robust antibody response.'

@ joyfulguy, at the current time, it is NOT recommended.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/vaccine-benefits/facts.html

"FACT: People who have gotten sick with COVID-19 may still benefit from getting vaccinated

Due to the severe health risks associated with COVID-19 and the fact that re-infection with COVID-19 is possible, people may be advised to get a COVID-19 vaccine even if they have been sick with COVID-19 before.

At this time, experts do not know how long someone is protected from getting sick again after recovering from COVID-19. The immunity someone gains from having an infection, called natural immunity, varies from person to person. Some early evidence suggests natural immunity may not last very long.

We won’t know how long immunity produced by vaccination lasts until we have a vaccine and more data on how well it works.

Both natural immunity and vaccine-induced immunity are important aspects of COVID-19 that experts are trying to learn more about, and CDC will keep the public informed as new evidence becomes available."