[Kim Jaeho's Life Story]<200> Something More Precious Than Vaccines

How long will the world dominated by the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) continue? Since COVID-19 first appeared, it did not take long to drastically change the existing global order. Despite tremendous efforts to overcome COVID-19, new cases and deaths are increasing faster. In less than a year, confirmed cases have already exceeded 50 million, and deaths have surpassed 1.2 million.

Even the United States and Europe, considered the most advanced countries, have not achieved significant results in their efforts to prevent infection, leading to a situation where people are sadly just waiting for a vaccine to be developed. Will a perfect vaccine be developed soon to suppress the COVID-19 pandemic?

Immune cells called white blood cells recognize the molecular structure of foreign substances entering the body, such as pathogens like bacteria or viruses (called 'antigens'). If these are identified as 'invaders' rather than part of the body, the immune cells attack and destroy them, and then produce antibodies?proteins that can easily destroy the antigen again by remembering it for a long time. When the same antigen is encountered again, the antibodies remove it much faster and more effectively than the first time.

Vaccines are created by utilizing these characteristics of immune cells. A vaccine is not a substance that directly kills pathogens; rather, it is a substance that induces immune cells to produce antibodies in the absence of infection by the pathogen, effectively substituting for natural infection. Vaccines are made using weakened or killed pathogens or toxins produced by the pathogens.

People tend to think that getting vaccinated completely prevents infectious diseases, but to effectively prevent infectious diseases, antibodies must be well produced after vaccination, and there must be no side effects. Verifying this efficacy and safety takes a long time, and frequent reports of interim results during the verification process often confuse the public.

The preventive effect of vaccines varies depending on the vaccine, and we can get some idea by looking at vaccines currently in use. For example, the measles vaccine has a very high preventive effect of 97% and lasts a lifetime, but the flu vaccine in the United States has an effectiveness of 40-60% when the circulating flu virus matches the virus used to make the vaccine, and it lasts only about six months. Still, 20,000 to 60,000 Americans die from the flu every year. Recently, there were reports in Korea of dozens of deaths after receiving the flu vaccine.

Currently, competition to develop vaccines is fierce, and clinical trials to verify efficacy and safety are showing considerable progress, so vaccine development is expected to be completed soon. However, is it possible to be completely free from COVID-19 just by being careful until vaccination and then getting the vaccine shot? The likelihood is much higher that this will not be the case.

As seen in the example of the flu vaccine, developing a perfect vaccine is not easy. While the vaccines being developed will help prevent COVID-19 to some extent, relying 100% on vaccines alone is insufficient. The preventive effect may not be very high, as with the flu vaccine, and shortening the verification period for efficacy and safety to develop vaccines quickly may reduce safety (most virus vaccines developed so far have taken more than 10 years to develop).

If vaccines alone are insufficient, where should we find the answer? The answer lies in the immune system, the best doctor prepared inside our bodies. Immune cells produce antibodies when vaccinated, but their role is not limited to that. When a virus enters the body without vaccination, it is also the immune cells’ job to eliminate it, and people with well-functioning immune systems produce antibodies much better when vaccinated.

Vaccines are convenient for preventing infectious diseases because they allow antibody production without infection, but a strong immune system is far more valuable than vaccines because it can overcome infectious diseases even without vaccination or when antibodies are not properly produced after vaccination, as well as infectious diseases for which vaccines have not been developed. It is unfortunate to entrust one’s precious body to a fake doctor without thinking about properly utilizing the immune system, the best doctor prepared inside the body, only to face unfortunate results.

What we need to do is simply create an environment that the immune system likes?nothing more, nothing less. By living a pro-life lifestyle that keeps the life switch on so that immune cells can maintain their best condition (see Life Story Episode 68), and by making efforts to prevent infection during the COVID-19 pandemic, that is sufficient.

Kim Jae-ho, Independent Researcher

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.