Vaccines and Our Immune System

Generally, innate immunity is nonspecific immunity, meaning it provides general protections against foreign pathogens (Nicholson 2016). Differing from Adaptive, the Innate is essentially “first-line” defences, which includes many different cells but also our skin.

This subsection of the immune system consists of highly specialized cells and responses that are generally acquired through prior infection or vaccination (Nicholson 2016). Adaptive immunity relies on memory, which can be memories of the molecules left behind by pathogens.

Thymus: This is the “school” that all T cells must attend to get “educated” by the immune system (Dettmer 2021). In this program, T cells must go through several tests to “graduate”, including: if their receptors are functioning well, if they can communicate with other cells well, and if they can recognize themselves. Only 2% graduate.

Bone: This is a second school where T and B cells originate, but only B cells graduate from and go on to work as T cells must leave to go to more school in the thymus. Bone marrow is very important as it generally produces all blood cells in the body (Dettmer 2021).

Antigens: a piece of an enemy (such as a protein) that the immune system can recognize, antigens are very important for the overall functioning of the immune system (Dettmer 2021).

Antibodies: Specialized weapons produced by B cells that can stick to antigens and trigger immune cells to “kill” targeted cells. As Dettmer puts it, imagine them as “hashtags of death” (2021).

IgE: molecules bound to cells that help in defending against parasites and producing allergic reactions (Nicholas 2016).

Neutrophils: The most abundant of the white blood cells, this cell is the first to respond to infections, and they perform phagocytosis (eating hostile cells) and local killing (Nicholson 2016).

Lymphocytes: These cells are mainly responsible for adaptive immunity (the ability of the immune system to learn). Individual T and B cells both recognize specific antigens for specific diseases (Dettmer 2021).

• Natural killer cells: These cells have a “license to kill” our own body cells in case of cancer and/or viral infection (Dettmer 2021).
• T cells: Being the coordinators of the immune system, these cells do a lot and are split into three sub groups (Dettmer 2021).
• B cells: These are the producers of antibodies, which recognize specific diseases for elimination (Dettmer 2021).

Monocytes: Another first responder, monocytes also perform phagocytosis in addition to antigen presentation (Nicholson 2016).

Granulocytes: Generally, these cells are involved in binding IgE, defending against parasites, and allergies (Nicholson 2016).

• Basophils: These guys patrol the body in the blood until they are needed, while having sensors for IgE and causing allergic reactions (Dettmer 2021).

• Eosinophils: Arrive “late to the party” following an allergic reaction, as they are in the bone marrow and respond to the cytokines released by Mast Cells and Basophils (Dettmer 2021).

You may have heard once or twice throughout the COVID-19 pandemic:

“I trust my immune system! I don’t need to [insert any protective measure here]!”

To some, this response might not seem all that unreasonable. Especially if you consider how often people get by other infections without much of an issue. The big issue, however, is that when a new disease comes along, such as COVID-19, our immune systems are completely unprepared – there is no defences set up specific for said pathogen.

Having no widespread immunity has the following consequences:

1. Rapid community spread
2. Overflowing hospitals
3. Mass death

This is the typical layout of most pandemics, and as such, we need to give our immune systems support by using public health protections until we can use vaccines to safely induce immunity.

Another phrase you may have heard during the COVID-19 pandemic:

“Why do we need vaccines if COVID isn’t that dangerous and we can just get immunity naturally?”

So, why not? According to Mahase, 2020, the overall COVID-19 death rate is just 0.66% – that certainly doesn’t seem that bad…

The issue with trying to predict outcomes of infection with novel pathogens is that we generally have no idea how our bodies will behave following infection with said disease. Long-COVID remains a massive issue, with 87% of patients discharged from hospitals experiencing it (Raveendran et al., 2021).

This is all to say that with any disease of pandemic potential, we need to treat them with a level of care proportional to the amount of knowledge we do not have about it. Vaccines undergo rigorous clinical trials to fully document the affects of the vaccine to the point where we likely know more about the vaccines than natural infection. A major plus, of course, is that vaccines completely remove the prospect of hospitalization that is so high with “natural infection”.

Available on our website will soon be a story for very young children (K-G3 or so) which will tell the tale of immunity and vaccines. It will focus on aspects from the immune system as characters, such as white blood cells and antibodies. This will allow fundamental concepts to be distilled readily for children.

It is currently being written and not available yet, but will be in the coming weeks and months!

In this predator-prey adapted game, the class is split into two groups: viruses and unvaccinated.

The goal of the virus is to infect everyone, while the goal of the unvaccinated is to collect data to build a vaccine while avoiding misinformation. Once a vaccine is built, the unvaccinated win. Additionally, marked spaces such as hula hoops may be used to represent social distancing measures. Data and misinformation may represent bean bags.

Learn how to play by clicking here.