Vaccines For Dummies

Introduction 1 About This Book 1 Foolish Assumptions 2 Icons Used in This Book 2 Beyond the Book 2 Where to Go from Here 3 Part 1: Getting Started with Vaccine Basics 5 Chapter 1: Focusing on Vaccine Fundamentals 7 Realizing the Crucial Role of Vaccines 8 Explaining How a Vaccine Works 9 Distinguishing between antigens and antibodies 10 Breaking down other vaccine ingredients 10 Comparing Viruses, Bacteria, and Toxins 11 Studying COVID-19 Vaccine Development 14 Understanding the Importance of Vaccine Schedules 15 Preparing for Potential Vaccine Side Effects 16 Optimizing Your Immune Response 16 Chapter 2: The (Non) Life of a Virus 17 Looking Inside Your Average Virus 18 Investigating Influenza Viruses 18 Type A 19 Type B 21 Type C 21 Type D 22 Examining Enteroviruses (Including Rhinoviruses) 22 Knowing About Norovirus 23 Understanding HIV 24 Trying to Say Goodbye to Measles 25 Checking Out the Cause of Chicken Pox: Varicella 26 Fighting Ebola 27 Surveying Variola (Smallpox) 29 Chapter 3: The Crowned Virus: Coronavirus 31 Identifying the Coronavirus in Humans 32 Combatting the Common Cold Coronavirus 33 What is a cold, exactly? 34 What causes a cold? 34 When is a cold not a cold? 35 Surveying SARS and MERS 40 Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) 40 Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) 41 COVID-19: The Novel (and Specially Confounding) Coronavirus 42 Reviewing the start of the pandemic 42 Charting the course of the infection 44 Detecting a COVID-19 infection 46 Digging into the development of COVID-19 vaccines 50 Dealing with vaccine side effects 52 Aiming for herd immunity 53 Keeping safe from COVID-19 if you’re not yet protected by vaccination 55 Coping with COVID-19 and flu season 56 Chapter 4: Bacterial Bad Guys 57 Understanding What Makes Bacteria Different from Viruses 57 Digging into Vaccines That Defuse Bacteria 58 The make-up of vaccines that protect against bacterial toxins 59 The bacterial illnesses that vaccines prevent 59 Comparing Antibiotics and Vaccines 64 Seeing How Vaccines Help Prevent Antibiotic Resistance 65 Part 2: Verifying Valuable Vaccines 67 Chapter 5: Distinguishing and Testing Different Vaccines 69 Getting to Know the Different Types of Vaccines 70 Whole-pathogen vaccines 70 Subunit vaccines 72 Testing Vaccines for Safety and Effectiveness 75 Determining the need and costs: The preclinical stage 75 Phase I 76 Phase II 76 Phase III 76 Post–Phase III 77 Studying the Efficacy of Vaccines 78 Measuring efficacy versus effectiveness 78 Rounding up herd immunity 79 Tracing the History of Various Vaccines 80 Smallpox 80 Typhoid fever 81 Yellow fever 81 Influenza 82 Polio 82 Anthrax 82 Measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) 82 Varicella (chicken pox) 83 Chapter 6: Tracking the Current List of Effective Vaccines 85 Chicken Pox (Varicella) 85 Diphtheria, Tetanus, and Pertussis 86 Diphtheria 86 Tetanus 87 Pertussis 88 Haemophilus Influenzae Type B (Hib) 88 Hepatitis A 89 Hepatitis B 90 Human Papillomavirus (HPV) 92 Influenza (Flu) 93 Measles, Mumps, and Rubella (MMR) 95 Measles, Mumps, Rubella, and Varicella (MMRV) 97 Meningococcal Vaccines 97 Pneumococcal Vaccines 98 For adults 99 For children 100 Rotavirus 101 Shingles (Herpes Zoster) 102 Chapter 7: What to Expect When You’re Vaccinating 105 Understanding Side Effects: What May Cause Them and What Happens 106 Looking at common vaccine ingredients 106 Distinguishing vaccine delivery methods 110 Watching for localized skin reactions 111 Expecting a systemic immune response 114 Recognizing and Treating Serious Reactions 116 Avoiding allergic reactions 117 Anaphylactic reactions 117 Febrile seizures after childhood vaccinations 118 Guillain-Barré syndrome 119 Thrombocytopenia 120 Looking at Multiple Vaccines and the Immune System 120 Part 3: Scheduling Safety 123 Chapter 8: Vaccines for Children 125 Understanding Mom-to-Baby Immunity 125 Breastfeeding benefits 126 Antibodies passed on during pregnancy 126 Getting a Reminder of the Effectiveness and Importance of Vaccinations 127 Focusing on Vaccinations in the First Year of Life 127 Hepatitis B 128 Rotavirus 129 DTaP (Diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis) 131 Hib 132 IPV (inactivated polio vaccine) 132 Influenza 133 PCV13 134 Knowing New Vaccinations for Toddlers 134 MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) 136 Varicella or MMRV 139 Hepatitis A 140 Surveying a Few Vaccines for Ages 4 to 6 140 Adding Some School-Age Vaccinations 141 Human papillomavirus (HPV) 141 Meningococcal conjugate (MenACWY) 142 Tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis (Tdap) 142 Needing a Booster: Vaccines for Teens 143 Catching Up on Childhood Vaccines 144 Spreading vaccines out 144 Starting vaccines late 144 Adopting a child from another country 145 Checking Out Vaccine Schedules Around the World 146 Chapter 9: Vaccines for Adults 147 Vaccines When You’re 19–26 Years Old 147 Your yearly flu shot 148 The COVID-19 vaccine 149 A Tdap or Td booster 150 Vaccines When You’re 27–49 Years Old 151 Vaccines When You’re 50–64 Years Old 151 Vaccines When You’re 65-Plus Years Old 153 Influenza 153 Tdap 155 Pneumococcal vaccines 156 Vaccines Before and During Pregnancy 156 Vaccines for Travelers 157 Making sure you’re up to date on routine vaccines 158 Getting other vaccines depending on your destination 158 Catching Up: If Your Parents/Guardians Didn’t Vaccinate You 160 Chapter 10: Spelling Out Who May Face Risks 161 Knowing When to Avoid or Limit Vaccines 161 Considering vaccines and cancer 162 Vaccines and immune disorders 163 Vaccines after organ transplantation 164 Understanding Vaccines and Allergies 165 Allergies to vaccine ingredients and components 165 Different types of reactions 168 Recognizing reactions that actually aren’t allergies 169 Taking precautions before vaccination 169 Assessing Reactions to the COVID-19 Vaccine 170 Rare cases of anaphylaxis 170 Other types of reactions 170 Inspecting ingredients found in current COVID-19 vaccines 171 Getting the COVID-19 vaccine after you’ve had COVID-19 173 Chapter 11: Anti-Vaxxers and Debunking Myths About Vaccines 175 Studying the Rise of Vaccine Hesitancy 176 Understanding why some people don’t vaccinate 176 Looking at the early anti-vaxxers 178 Debunking Common Vaccine Myths 179 Myth: Diseases were disappearing before vaccines were invented 180 Myth: Vaccines cause serious side effects, illnesses, and death 180 Myth: Kids don’t need to be vaccinated so young 181 Myth: Kids don’t need to be vaccinated when illnesses don’t exist in their country 184 Myth: Giving multiple vaccines at the same time overloads the immune system 184 Myth: Vaccines can cause the disease they are supposed to prevent 185 Myth: Not getting vaccinated affects only me 186 Myth: Natural immunity is always best 186 Myth: The MMR vaccine causes autism 187 Myth: Vaccines contain harmful chemicals 188 Reviewing Vaccine Recalls 189 Part 4: The Part of Tens 191 Chapter 12: Five People Who Created Ten (Or More) Modern Vaccines 193 Edward Jenner: Snuffing Out Smallpox 193 Louis Pasteur: Ridding the World of Rabies 194 Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin: Putting Polio Behind Us 195 Maurice Hilleman: The Master of Modern Vaccines 196 Chapter 13: Ten Diseases Without Vaccines, from A to Z 199 Avian Influenzas (Bird Flu) 200 Cytomegalovirus (CMV) 200 Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) 201 Hepatitis C 202 Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV) 1 and 2 203 HIV/AIDS 204 Lyme Disease 205 Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) 207 West Nile Virus 208 Zika Virus 209 Chapter 14: The Ten Most Lethal Major Pandemics 211 Antonine Plague (165–180) 212 Plague of Justinian (541–750) 212 Bubonic Plague (Black Death) (1346–1353) 213 Cholera (1846–1860) 214 Third Plague Pandemic (1855–1960) 215 Influenza (Russian Flu) (1889–1890) 215 Influenza (Spanish Flu) (1918–1919) 216 Influenza (Asian Flu) (1957–1958) 217 Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) (1981–Present) 217 COVID-19 (2020–Present) 218 Chapter 15: Ten Ways to Boost Your Immune System 219 Getting Your Vaccinations 219 Decreasing Stress 220 Eating Well 220 Maintaining a Healthy Weight 221 Getting Enough Sleep 221 Exercising for Immunity 222 Saying No to Smoking 222 Drinking Only in Moderation 223 Staying Connected 223 Considering Supplements 224 Index 225