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Originally Posted by Thor
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Despite routinely vaccinating our infants and toddlers against 14 pediatric diseases [PDF] (15 if you count H1N1), compared to the single smallpox vaccine kids got a century ago, their immune systems get less of a workout. How can that be?
Vaccine biology is much improved today. With purified proteins and recombinant DNA technology, we can target the desired antigen -- that component that we want the immune system to "see" and remember -- much more specifically. So while vaccines of the past may have had hundreds of antigens, today's vaccines can have as few as one. Here's the take-home: kids today get many more vaccines than the children who got the solitary smallpox vaccine, but they actually receive less immunologic triggers (approximately 150 versus 200 antigens from smallpox, according to researchers).
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hopefully, the comments at the bottom is not indicative her message is falling on deaf ears