# Vaccine for viruses **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 3, 2020, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vaccine-for-viruses/848844 "2020-03-03T02:38:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2020, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vaccine-for-viruses/848844/21 "2020-03-03T17:28:57Z")
There are many vaccines to prevent bacterial infections. In addition to those already mentioned there are vaccines against pertussis, Haemophilus influenzae type B, cholera, typhoid, and Streptococcus pneumoniae. A TB vaccine exists, with limited effectiveness. A long-running antivax meme claims that vaccinated people may not get sick but are still infected and allegedly passing on the bugs to others. The polite term for this is “bullshit”. Vaccines can attenuate symptoms in a vaccinated person who still contracts the disease - influenza, for example. ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2020, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vaccine-for-viruses/848844/22 "2020-03-03T17:36:26Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > … A vaccine is given (hopefully) before you’re infected, to prevent you from ever getting sick in the first place, but isn’t much use for a disease you already have… I guess this used to be true, but increasingly it isn’t. See the Wiki page [Therapeutic vaccines](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Therapeutic_vaccines). > [@](#): > > A therapeutic vaccine is a vaccine which is administered after the disease or infection has already occurred. The therapeutic vaccine works by activating immune system of the patient to fight towards infection. The difference in therapeutic vaccine and vaccine is that vaccines are administered to individuals as a precautionary measure to avoid the infection or disease while therapeutic vaccines are administered after the individual is already affected by the disease or infection. Therapeutic vaccine fights the existing infection in body rather then immunizing body for protection against future diseases and infections. More recently the term “specific immunotherapy” has come to be preferred to “therapeutic vaccine”, at least in Europe. Complicated old world, eh? j PS - as a BTW, in re of another discussion upthread, there’s also a Wiki page [Category:Live vaccines](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Live_vaccines). ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2020, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vaccine-for-viruses/848844/23 "2020-03-03T17:45:15Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Because “vaca” means “cow”. Yep. Related to the word “vaquero” (for cowboy) and buckaroo (same) ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2020, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vaccine-for-viruses/848844/24 "2020-03-03T22:17:35Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > Antibiotics are mostly for bacteria. Only “mostly”? What else are antibiotics effective against besides bacteria? ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2020, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vaccine-for-viruses/848844/25 "2020-03-03T23:04:30Z")
I don’t know why this keeps popping up > [@AHunter3](#): > > Antibiotics are mostly for bacteria. Vaccines are mostly for viruses. Whooping cough, pneumonia, diphtheria, tetanus, meningococcal septicemia, epiglottitis, cholera, typhoid, and anthrax are all bacterial infections well worth vaccinating against and commonly are. ---
**Author:** ![eschrodinger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschrodinger/32/122_2.png) [@eschrodinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschrodinger)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2020, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vaccine-for-viruses/848844/26 "2020-03-03T23:34:36Z")
Is immune globulin still used these days to treat viral illnesses? I remember reading about it being used in, for example, a past Ebola outbreak. Serum from a recovered person was injected into a person who was ill to get the benefit of the recovered person’s antibodies. I’m not sure if it was a rarely used desperation measure, or if it is in any more widespread use. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2020, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vaccine-for-viruses/848844/27 "2020-03-04T07:29:49Z")
> [@eschrodinger](#): > > Is immune globulin still used these days to treat viral illnesses? > > I remember reading about it being used in, for example, a past Ebola outbreak. Serum from a recovered person was injected into a person who was ill to get the benefit of the recovered person’s antibodies. > > I’m not sure if it was a rarely used desperation measure, or if it is in any more widespread use. mmunoglobulin/antibody/plasma therapy is being used right now in China to treat people who are very sick with SARS-2 COVID, from the COVID-19 virus. Because right now there aren’t any other treatments that are known to be effective. There may be a lot of other treatments that /are/ effective, and plasma treatment may not be /very/ effective, but right now not a lot is /known/, except that COVID-19 has a very high fatality rate (10~50%) among those people who are so sick that they need intensive care, and any treatment which is likely to be effective must be tried. To date, plasma therapy is only in use in China, because only China has enough recovered people to donate plasma. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2020, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vaccine-for-viruses/848844/28 "2020-03-04T11:57:48Z")
Aside: a “very high fatality rate among those people who are sick that they need intensive care” isn’t a very meaningful statement. They “need intensive care” because they’re so sick that they have a high fatality rate. You could likewise say that those who need intensive care for a common cold also have a high fatality rate. But it’s not a useful statement unless you also include just how many cold-sufferers get that sick. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2020, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vaccine-for-viruses/848844/29 "2020-03-04T20:51:18Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Aside: a “very high fatality rate among those people who are sick that they need intensive care” isn’t a very meaningful statement. They “need intensive care” because they’re so sick that they have a high fatality rate. You could likewise say that those who need intensive care for a common cold also have a high fatality rate. But it’s not a useful statement unless you also include just how many cold-sufferers get that sick. All of the people I’ve known who’ve required intensive care have survived. Friends, relatives, acquaintances. Knife wounds, influenza, sepsis, accidents, whatever. Most people who go into ICU will survive. The USA is an outlier for putting dying people into ICU. My father died of cancer and bed-rest. If he had been in the USA, perhaps he would have died in ICU. That colors your perception of what it means to be put into ICU in China. In China and Aus, people are put into ICU if they will benefit from intensive care (in one way or another). COVID-19 is different from influenza. It has a high fatality rate among those people who are so sick that they need intensive care. ---
**Author:** ![eschrodinger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschrodinger/32/122_2.png) [@eschrodinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschrodinger)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2020, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vaccine-for-viruses/848844/30 "2020-03-09T17:41:39Z")
Just after that post, I looked it up, and the overall mortality rate for ICU patients was something like 8 to 19%. So Covid-19’s rate could be in the normal range to much higher than normal. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2020, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vaccine-for-viruses/848844/31 "2020-03-09T21:02:50Z")
> [@outlierrn](#): > > Whooping cough, pneumonia, diphtheria, tetanus, meningococcal septicemia, epiglottitis, cholera, typhoid, and anthrax are all bacterial infections well worth vaccinating against and commonly are. Pneumonia and epiglottitis are not bacterial infections; they are nonspecific conditions of the respiratory tract. They _can_ be caused by bacteria, but they need not be. But you are right that there exist vaccines that protect against at least some of the bacterial causes. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vaccine-for-viruses/848844.md?page=1)