YouTube: | https://youtube.com/watch?v=5kqkZ0bs_Zo |
Previous: | The First Animal Ever on Earth |
Next: | The Second-Ever Case of Full HIV Remission | SciShow News |
Categories
Statistics
View count: | 113,873 |
Likes: | 4,836 |
Comments: | 566 |
Duration: | 06:46 |
Uploaded: | 2019-03-07 |
Last sync: | 2024-08-29 09:15 |
Citation
Citation formatting is not guaranteed to be accurate. | |
MLA Full: | "Why Do We Need Yearly Flu Shots, but Not Measles Shots?" YouTube, uploaded by SciShow, 7 March 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kqkZ0bs_Zo. |
MLA Inline: | (SciShow, 2019) |
APA Full: | SciShow. (2019, March 7). Why Do We Need Yearly Flu Shots, but Not Measles Shots? [Video]. YouTube. https://youtube.com/watch?v=5kqkZ0bs_Zo |
APA Inline: | (SciShow, 2019) |
Chicago Full: |
SciShow, "Why Do We Need Yearly Flu Shots, but Not Measles Shots?", March 7, 2019, YouTube, 06:46, https://youtube.com/watch?v=5kqkZ0bs_Zo. |
Unlike measles, Influenza requires a fresh shot of vaccines every year. But why?
Go to https://NordVPN.com/scishow and use code SCISHOW to get 75% off a 3 year plan.
Hosted by: Olivia Gordon
SciShow has a spinoff podcast! It's called SciShow Tangents. Check it out at https://www.scishowtangents.org
----------
Support SciShow by becoming a patron on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/scishow
----------
Huge thanks go to the following Patreon supporters for helping us keep SciShow free for everyone forever:
Bill & Katie Scholl, Adam Brainard, Greg, Alex Hackman, Andrew Finley Brenan, Sam Lutfi, D.A. Noe, الخليفي سلطان, Piya Shedden, KatieMarie Magnone, Scott Satovsky Jr, Charles Southerland, Patrick D. Ashmore, charles george, Kevin Bealer, Chris Peters
----------
Looking for SciShow elsewhere on the internet?
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/scishow
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/scishow
Tumblr: http://scishow.tumblr.com
Instagram: http://instagram.com/thescishow
----------
Sources:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4007870/
https://www.cdc.gov/measles/about/history.html
https://www.cdc.gov/measles/downloads/measlesdataandstatsslideset.pdf
https://www.pnas.org/content/109/37/14989
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5035964/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4848605/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4848602/
https://www.cell.com/cell-reports/fulltext/S2211-1247(15)00471-4
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1193617/
https://www.who.int/biologicals/vaccines/measles/en/
https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/qa/vaccineeffect.htm
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19086915
https://www.who.int/biologicals/vaccines/influenza/en/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2937864/
https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/basics/past-pandemics.html
https://www.cdc.gov/flu/other/animal-flu.html
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3804342/
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1586/erv.12.73
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-28706-1
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22308500
http://jem.rupress.org/content/208/1/181.abstract
https://jvi.asm.org/content/90/14/6549
https://jvi.asm.org/content/90/2/851
https://www.nature.com/articles/nbt.4328
https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03450915
https://www.cdc.gov/flu/professionals/vaccination/effectiveness-studies.htm
https://www.cdc.gov/flu/avianflu/virus-transmission.htm
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22318394
Image Sources:
https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/medical-vaccine-gm926989260-254321251
https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/blue-viruses-viral-disease-cells-abstract-3d-illustration-gm905497568-249675011
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemagglutinin_(influenza)#/media/File:Flu_und_legende_color_c.jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CDC-11214-swine-flu.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuraminidase#/media/File:Neuraminidase_Ribbon_Diagram.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemagglutinin_(influenza)#/media/File:PDB_1hgd_EBI.jpg
https://phil.cdc.gov/Details.aspx?pid=21074
https://www.istockphoto.com/vector/data-protection-gm1007097308-271758293
https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/white-llama-in-argentina-south-america-salta-province-gm154948449-15846820
Go to https://NordVPN.com/scishow and use code SCISHOW to get 75% off a 3 year plan.
Hosted by: Olivia Gordon
SciShow has a spinoff podcast! It's called SciShow Tangents. Check it out at https://www.scishowtangents.org
----------
Support SciShow by becoming a patron on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/scishow
----------
Huge thanks go to the following Patreon supporters for helping us keep SciShow free for everyone forever:
Bill & Katie Scholl, Adam Brainard, Greg, Alex Hackman, Andrew Finley Brenan, Sam Lutfi, D.A. Noe, الخليفي سلطان, Piya Shedden, KatieMarie Magnone, Scott Satovsky Jr, Charles Southerland, Patrick D. Ashmore, charles george, Kevin Bealer, Chris Peters
----------
Looking for SciShow elsewhere on the internet?
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/scishow
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/scishow
Tumblr: http://scishow.tumblr.com
Instagram: http://instagram.com/thescishow
----------
Sources:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4007870/
https://www.cdc.gov/measles/about/history.html
https://www.cdc.gov/measles/downloads/measlesdataandstatsslideset.pdf
https://www.pnas.org/content/109/37/14989
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5035964/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4848605/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4848602/
https://www.cell.com/cell-reports/fulltext/S2211-1247(15)00471-4
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1193617/
https://www.who.int/biologicals/vaccines/measles/en/
https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/qa/vaccineeffect.htm
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19086915
https://www.who.int/biologicals/vaccines/influenza/en/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2937864/
https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/basics/past-pandemics.html
https://www.cdc.gov/flu/other/animal-flu.html
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3804342/
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1586/erv.12.73
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-28706-1
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22308500
http://jem.rupress.org/content/208/1/181.abstract
https://jvi.asm.org/content/90/14/6549
https://jvi.asm.org/content/90/2/851
https://www.nature.com/articles/nbt.4328
https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03450915
https://www.cdc.gov/flu/professionals/vaccination/effectiveness-studies.htm
https://www.cdc.gov/flu/avianflu/virus-transmission.htm
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22318394
Image Sources:
https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/medical-vaccine-gm926989260-254321251
https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/blue-viruses-viral-disease-cells-abstract-3d-illustration-gm905497568-249675011
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemagglutinin_(influenza)#/media/File:Flu_und_legende_color_c.jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CDC-11214-swine-flu.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuraminidase#/media/File:Neuraminidase_Ribbon_Diagram.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemagglutinin_(influenza)#/media/File:PDB_1hgd_EBI.jpg
https://phil.cdc.gov/Details.aspx?pid=21074
https://www.istockphoto.com/vector/data-protection-gm1007097308-271758293
https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/white-llama-in-argentina-south-america-salta-province-gm154948449-15846820
This episode of SciShow is supported by NordVPN.
Head over to nordVPN.com/SciShow to learn more about virtual private networks and internet security. [♪ INTRO ]. The number of diseases we've beaten back using vaccines is truly impressive.
But when it comes to beating back viruses themselves, our track record is actually… a lot less consistent. Take measles. It's a severe, highly contagious disease that used to be considered an inevitable part of childhood until vaccination was introduced in 1963.
The measles vaccine saves millions of lives, and according to the CDC, two doses is usually enough to protect kids for life. Influenza is a nasty bug too. But unlike measles, which is known as the poster child for lifelong immunity, influenza is the only vaccine-preventable disease that requires a fresh shot every year.
C'mon flu, why can't you be more like measles and let us fight you off with just a couple of doses? What makes these two viruses so different that we can fend off one of them permanently in one or two steps, while the other requires constant vigilance? It has to do in part with the structure of these viruses, and how mutation causes them to change.
The measles virus is shaped kind of like a ball covered in spikes. And those spikes are proteins, named mico and fusion proteins, or H and F for short, which help the virus latch onto a host cell and infect it. And if H or F undergo a genetic mutation, the measles virus suddenly gets much worse at infecting.
Researchers are still studying the details of how this works in measles, but the genetic sequence of the virus determines the structure of those proteins. And if that structure changes even a tiny bit, in measles, they appear to stop working. The point of any vaccine is to trigger the immune system to create antibodies to specific disease-causing agents, which then lie in wait to fend off microbes with the same antigen if and when they invade the body in the future.
And in measles, these H and F proteins can't change. Which is pretty great for us, because we just need to produce one vaccine, and that'll pretty much work for everyone, forever. In fact, the vaccine we use today was developed using a strain of measles that was first isolated from a young boy in 1954.
And it still works really well!, because measles today still looks enough like measles from 1954 that the same antibodies still work to fend off the illness. Influenza viruses, on the other hand, are the quick-change artists of the viral world. Like measles, the types of influenza our vaccines target have two kinds of protein spikes.
Hemagglutinin, or HA, helps the virus bind to the host cell. There's also neuraminidase, or NA, which helps release viruses from the host cell. HA and NA together make up the HN formula we name flu strains after — like H1N1.
But unlike its counterpart in the measles virus, HA mutates a lot. Mutations change the shape of this protein, and it changes so quickly that an antibody that worked for one subtype of flu can't recognize the shape of other variants. Our once-a-year flu vaccines trigger production of antibodies to the head of the HA protein, which reaches out from the surface of the virus like a bunch of tiny mushrooms growing on a roughly ball-shaped virus.
These antibodies work by blocking the HA protein from binding to host cells. But like the measles virus, flu virus HA proteins mutate all the time, causing slight changes in their structure, while still retaining their ability to infect us. And the fact that the structure is constantly changing means the same antibodies can't recognize the HA molecules on different strains of flu from one year to the next.
A truly universal flu vaccine — a one-time vaccine that would be effective across all strains — is widely considered the holy grail of vaccine research. One big piece of the puzzle is the stem of the mushroom-shaped HA protein. Unlike the rapidly-changing head, the stem remains largely unchanged from year to year.
If only our antibodies could reach it. Because that mushroom head seems to get in the way. In researching the H1N1 pandemic of 2009, scientists found something unexpected.
They realized that people who got the 2009 version of the flu shot made more antibodies than they would have predicted to the HA mushroom stems. And surprisingly, those antibodies were able to recognize and immobilize several strains and subtypes of flu. It turns out that the particular strain of H1N1 circulating that year had a head that was about 30% different from previous strains, which has led scientists to hypothesize that being exposed to HA proteins with different kinds of head structures somehow redirects the body's immune response to make antibodies that bind to the stems.
So, developing vaccines that target the stem of HA has since been a major focus of universal vaccine efforts. One approach is a vaccine that targets the HA stem, in combination with NA, which has shown to protect against a lethal strain of flu in mice. Another promising approach uses antibodies from … llamas.
Turns out llamas produce antibodies that are smaller than ours, which allows them to squeeze past the HA head and bind to the stem. This approach also proved successful in mice. But the candidate furthest along in the quest for a universal shot is called M-001, and it's slightly different.
It targets very short segments of the HA protein that are known not to change. And it's making its way through clinical trials. Ultimately, the process behind creating a universal flu vaccine could end up being a lot like how we made the measles vaccine.
It's just that the flu makes things far more difficult, and hides the parts we can target really well. Meanwhile, we'll stay thankful for our lifelong immunity to measles, and keep getting those annual flu shots. They're still a lot nicer than the flu.
Vaccines can protect us from real-life viruses, but there are other ways to protect ourselves and our privacy on the Internet. NordVPN is a service that encrypts the data you send and receive online. Your internet connection is kept totally secure, even on public networks where you'd otherwise be vulnerable to people trying to snoop on private information like your bank account number or even just your home address.
One plan works for up to 6 devices at once, so you can use it on your home computer and your tablet and your phone and any other gadgets you have lying around. And the Android and iOS apps can even secure your browsing while you use those mobile devices. NordVPN uses military-grade encryption so your information is always secure and anonymous.
For a limited time get 75% off a 3-year plan at nordvpn.com/SCISHOW. This special offer makes your subscription just $2.99 per month so you can browse and shop securely online — on all your devices. And for a short time, use code SCISHOW to get an extra month of NordVPN for free!
Check out the link in the video description to learn more. [ ♪OUTRO ].
Head over to nordVPN.com/SciShow to learn more about virtual private networks and internet security. [♪ INTRO ]. The number of diseases we've beaten back using vaccines is truly impressive.
But when it comes to beating back viruses themselves, our track record is actually… a lot less consistent. Take measles. It's a severe, highly contagious disease that used to be considered an inevitable part of childhood until vaccination was introduced in 1963.
The measles vaccine saves millions of lives, and according to the CDC, two doses is usually enough to protect kids for life. Influenza is a nasty bug too. But unlike measles, which is known as the poster child for lifelong immunity, influenza is the only vaccine-preventable disease that requires a fresh shot every year.
C'mon flu, why can't you be more like measles and let us fight you off with just a couple of doses? What makes these two viruses so different that we can fend off one of them permanently in one or two steps, while the other requires constant vigilance? It has to do in part with the structure of these viruses, and how mutation causes them to change.
The measles virus is shaped kind of like a ball covered in spikes. And those spikes are proteins, named mico and fusion proteins, or H and F for short, which help the virus latch onto a host cell and infect it. And if H or F undergo a genetic mutation, the measles virus suddenly gets much worse at infecting.
Researchers are still studying the details of how this works in measles, but the genetic sequence of the virus determines the structure of those proteins. And if that structure changes even a tiny bit, in measles, they appear to stop working. The point of any vaccine is to trigger the immune system to create antibodies to specific disease-causing agents, which then lie in wait to fend off microbes with the same antigen if and when they invade the body in the future.
And in measles, these H and F proteins can't change. Which is pretty great for us, because we just need to produce one vaccine, and that'll pretty much work for everyone, forever. In fact, the vaccine we use today was developed using a strain of measles that was first isolated from a young boy in 1954.
And it still works really well!, because measles today still looks enough like measles from 1954 that the same antibodies still work to fend off the illness. Influenza viruses, on the other hand, are the quick-change artists of the viral world. Like measles, the types of influenza our vaccines target have two kinds of protein spikes.
Hemagglutinin, or HA, helps the virus bind to the host cell. There's also neuraminidase, or NA, which helps release viruses from the host cell. HA and NA together make up the HN formula we name flu strains after — like H1N1.
But unlike its counterpart in the measles virus, HA mutates a lot. Mutations change the shape of this protein, and it changes so quickly that an antibody that worked for one subtype of flu can't recognize the shape of other variants. Our once-a-year flu vaccines trigger production of antibodies to the head of the HA protein, which reaches out from the surface of the virus like a bunch of tiny mushrooms growing on a roughly ball-shaped virus.
These antibodies work by blocking the HA protein from binding to host cells. But like the measles virus, flu virus HA proteins mutate all the time, causing slight changes in their structure, while still retaining their ability to infect us. And the fact that the structure is constantly changing means the same antibodies can't recognize the HA molecules on different strains of flu from one year to the next.
A truly universal flu vaccine — a one-time vaccine that would be effective across all strains — is widely considered the holy grail of vaccine research. One big piece of the puzzle is the stem of the mushroom-shaped HA protein. Unlike the rapidly-changing head, the stem remains largely unchanged from year to year.
If only our antibodies could reach it. Because that mushroom head seems to get in the way. In researching the H1N1 pandemic of 2009, scientists found something unexpected.
They realized that people who got the 2009 version of the flu shot made more antibodies than they would have predicted to the HA mushroom stems. And surprisingly, those antibodies were able to recognize and immobilize several strains and subtypes of flu. It turns out that the particular strain of H1N1 circulating that year had a head that was about 30% different from previous strains, which has led scientists to hypothesize that being exposed to HA proteins with different kinds of head structures somehow redirects the body's immune response to make antibodies that bind to the stems.
So, developing vaccines that target the stem of HA has since been a major focus of universal vaccine efforts. One approach is a vaccine that targets the HA stem, in combination with NA, which has shown to protect against a lethal strain of flu in mice. Another promising approach uses antibodies from … llamas.
Turns out llamas produce antibodies that are smaller than ours, which allows them to squeeze past the HA head and bind to the stem. This approach also proved successful in mice. But the candidate furthest along in the quest for a universal shot is called M-001, and it's slightly different.
It targets very short segments of the HA protein that are known not to change. And it's making its way through clinical trials. Ultimately, the process behind creating a universal flu vaccine could end up being a lot like how we made the measles vaccine.
It's just that the flu makes things far more difficult, and hides the parts we can target really well. Meanwhile, we'll stay thankful for our lifelong immunity to measles, and keep getting those annual flu shots. They're still a lot nicer than the flu.
Vaccines can protect us from real-life viruses, but there are other ways to protect ourselves and our privacy on the Internet. NordVPN is a service that encrypts the data you send and receive online. Your internet connection is kept totally secure, even on public networks where you'd otherwise be vulnerable to people trying to snoop on private information like your bank account number or even just your home address.
One plan works for up to 6 devices at once, so you can use it on your home computer and your tablet and your phone and any other gadgets you have lying around. And the Android and iOS apps can even secure your browsing while you use those mobile devices. NordVPN uses military-grade encryption so your information is always secure and anonymous.
For a limited time get 75% off a 3-year plan at nordvpn.com/SCISHOW. This special offer makes your subscription just $2.99 per month so you can browse and shop securely online — on all your devices. And for a short time, use code SCISHOW to get an extra month of NordVPN for free!
Check out the link in the video description to learn more. [ ♪OUTRO ].