[Book Sip] Get Vaccinated with Proper Knowledge: 'Easy-to-Understand Vaccine Stories'

Some sentences encapsulate the entire content of the book itself, while others instantly reach the reader's heart and create a connection with the book. We introduce such meaningful sentences excerpted from the book. - Editor's note

The author, who has worked as a science journalist for over a decade, explains what vaccines are in an easy-to-understand way and dispels misunderstandings and distrust about COVID-19 vaccines. The book introduces how 'vaccines' were developed, the principles behind immune formation, the types of vaccines, and the side effects of each vaccine, and forecasts the future through the history of vaccines. It also provides the latest information on COVID-19, including the characteristics and side effects of COVID vaccines such as Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca, Janssen, and Novavax, as well as symptoms and features of COVID-19 variants from the 'Alpha' variant to the 'Stealth Omicron'.

The purpose of vaccines is to acquire active immunity, that is, adaptive immunity. The simplest method is to get infected with the disease and then recover. When pathogens enter our body, innate immunity begins to fight the disease, and meanwhile, immune cells naturally acquire adaptive immunity and eventually eliminate the disease. This is why people who had measles once in childhood do not get measles again for life. However, the method of acquiring sufficient immunity by getting infected and recovering from every disease cannot guarantee safety. Sometimes, people refuse vaccination, claiming that 'developing natural immunity is healthier,' but this cannot be considered scientific thinking. Intentionally allowing oneself to get infected to become healthy without getting sick is nonsensical.

- Pages 92-93

The methods of making vaccines have also diversified. Starting from simply diluting pathogens for use, various methods have been developed, such as weakening the toxicity of pathogens, inactivating pathogens, and removing only the toxicity of pathogens. There is also a method of producing antibodies against the disease in the laboratory and injecting them into the human body. Recently, even the genes of pathogens are being manipulated. Gene vaccines that enter the human body, react like viruses but without toxicity, and only induce immunity are being developed. This advanced immunology technology is no longer used only for disease prevention. It has reached a stage where it maximizes the immune function of the human body to treat diseases that have already developed inside the body. Anticancer drugs with fewer side effects have begun to be developed, and treatments for AIDS, once considered incurable, have started to be developed.

- Pages 117-118

The greatest advantage of VLP vaccines is that, as technology advances, vaccines can be obtained from plants. Plant cells also have expression systems, so vaccines can be produced using them. This means that vaccines can be produced simply by cultivating crops and extracting the active ingredients. However, the production volume is relatively low, so additional research is needed to overcome this. A few years ago, the American pharmaceutical company Novavax made headlines by developing a flu vaccine using plant cells.

- Page 149

Easy-to-Understand Vaccine Stories | Written by Jeon Seungmin | Kyung Hee University Press | 212 pages | 18,000 KRW