Birthday rant!
It’s my birthday and that means you are not allowed to argue with the birthday girl …it’s law! So, I wanted to get on her and say…hey! It’s my birthday and support me by supporting my brand @thedopekidfest or www.thedopekid.com ! (And if you still choose too, I ain’t mad at cha (2pac voice)) BUT YOU CAN REALLY SUPPORT ME BY GETTING VACCINATED
But Maya, {Insert whatever excuse here}
Everybody gets their information from Facebook, so let me be your source.
Let’s start with your immune system and how it works…
Super short version…. virus enters the body and your immune system is like, Yo! Who are you? And instead of the virus being like, I come in peace, let’s be friends, it’s like… I am here to wild out! So, the immune system is like BET! 👊🏾👊🏾
Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!
If your immune system is strong, it defeats the virus and calls up B cells to make memory cells, so it won’t be caught slipping again.
So, what does that have to do with vaccines? 💉
A vaccine contains a piece of a virus (mRNA in the case of COVID-19) that sends your immune system into battle mood to make those memory cells so you won’t be caught out there!
But the vaccine was rushed…
Clinical trials typically run consecutively, however in this case, testing was done concurrently.
This type of testing has been debated for years in the scientific community. Scientist have complained for decades that the FDA approval process is long and arduous. The same amount of testing was done. The same protocols and parameters were done. The only thing that changed was instead of waiting between each study, the studies were completed at the same time. Does nothing to change the outcome, quality, or efficiency of the study. But let’s be real, did you even know that was up for debate? How much of the FDA approval process can you name (without Google).
Also, it was “rushed” on a virus discovered in the 1960s.
The Human Coronavirus was discovered by June Almeida in 1964. Yes, I have a link to a picture book, so read more here 👉🏾
https://bookshop.org/a/7940/9781534111325
But let’s be honest, scientists are working on a million different things that the average person does not know about. Are you keeping up with scientific journals? Are you attending seminars and conferences about new and emerging infectious diseases? So, how would you know … just keeping it real !
But if your vaccinated, why do I need to get vaccinated?
Simple answer. You will continue to spread the disease and I won’t. When you get vaccinated and get infected, the vaccine stops with you. The virus can’t spread to a new host, so eventually without a host, the virus dies out. A virus requires a host to live. The more vaccinated people equals less hosts for the virus.
E.g in history of how this has been successful…!
Think, when is the last time you heard a conversation like this.. …No, I can’t come to your birthday party because I got smallpox? You mean chicken pox? No, I mean small pox? Like what colonist threw on Indigenous people to spread disease? Yes, that smallpox … NEVER (eradicated through vaccine efforts) !!! And really when is the last time, you heard of a kid having chicken pox? I never got it but all my brothers did…. I wonder if there is a vaccine for that? Haha…yea, there is!
But what about side effects?
But what about all the things the medical system has done to Black people…
Yes, the US medical system is racist. PERIOD. However, in this particular vaccine roll-out that history was not overlooked and efforts were made to try to make it accessible to all communities. Not perfect but our voices on this issue were heard.
Side note: Inoculation against diseases started in Africa.
Inoculation for smallpox, the precursor to vaccination, has a long history. The earliest known descriptions of the practice occur in sub-Saharan Africa. The accounts were given to colonizers by enslaved Africans in colonial America in the early and mid-eighteenth century. The practice had been most extensively used in the Western and Central Sudan, Ethiopia and Southern Africa.
So, it’s kind of Black history.
To make this birthday girl, register to get vaccinated today. A vaccine is like wearing a bulletproof vest for me, you, your Mama, and your cousin too!
If you have read this far, I love you! Drop a heart in the comments, so I know.
Super long version of the immune system
The Incredible Immune System
The immune system is the amazing part of your body that is like a safety belt. It keeps you safe. It is like a little army that fight invaders (microbes) to keep you strong! The immune system is divided into 2 big groups, innate and acquired immunity. Innate immunity is the group that has all of the tools you are born with to fight microbes. Acquired immunity is immunity that your body learns along the way to fight microbes.
Your immune system army has several lines of defense. This first level of warriors are part of the innate immune system and are on the outside of your body. It starts with skin and hair not allowing microbes to enter. Also, antimicrobial (microbe fighting) cells are in sweat, saliva, and oils that your body secretes (releases). Innate immunity attacks all microbes in the same way and is a very generic process.
If the microbe gets pass the first line of defense, the innate immune system calls up phagocytes and leukocytes. Phagocytes are cells that eat microbes. Leukocytes is the scientific way of saying white blood cells. White blood cells attach to microbes and destroy them. Phagocytes send a message to another friend in the immune system, cytokines, to ask lymphocytes to join the fight. This also starts acquired immunity to take part in this battle.
Lymphocytes are special white blood cells that hang out in the blood waiting to attack microbes. T cell & B cells are lymphocytes that have special locations on them (called receptors) that can connect to microbes like puzzle pieces. This connection causes T cells or B cells to make plasma cells and memory cells. Plasma cells fight the microbe antigen (what a microbe is called once it enters the body) by releasing antibodies. Memory cells remembers the antigen and knows how to fight it if you get sick with the same microbe again.
Once all of the microbes are defeated and taken out of the body like your parent takes out the trash, the immune system is victorious! Hip Hip Hooray!!!
