By Penelope A. Domogo, MD
Did you know that our body has an automatic emergency response system? It’s not only the indigenous community or the government that has this. In fact, our internal emergency response system is so awesome that makes us acknowledge a higher power than humans. It’s a survival mechanism built by our Creator. In fact, scientists (in the laboratory and in the community) are amazed at how mind-boggling our emergency response system is. In fact, there are many things in this world we may not understand why but we know exists like why are there viruses and bacteria. As one of the greatest scientists of the world, Albert Einstein, said, “As a human being, one has been endowed with just enough intelligence to be able to see clearly how utterly inadequate that intelligence is when confronted with what exists.” One thing we know is that our body, without our thinking, knows what belongs and what does not belong. Meaning, if a foreign substance or organism, is able to enter the body’s opening like the nose, the nose will immediately recognize it and sneezes it out and/or the hair (in your nose) and mucus will trap it before it goes further in and do damage. It’s like we have security guards in our doorstep to ensure no thief will enter and steal our health. Try taking the bus or jeep from Cubao to Quiapo and spend time walking the streets of Carriedo and you will have blackened kulangot. Thank the security guards in your nose for not allowing those black toxins, along with the myriad of viruses and bacteria flying in that congested area of Manila, to enter your lungs. If, however, a foreign body, like covid 19 or its variant, managed to go past the security guards and enter your lungs and then managed to wriggle their way into your blood, geez, a battle will ensue. You see, we have a general defence patrol swimming in our bloodstream 24/7, on alert, no let-up, even when you are sleeping, ready to swoop onto any invader (medically called “antigen”). Isn’t that awesome? Wala tayong consciousness dito- how is that possible? It must be designed by somebody who cares so much for us! BTW, all other organisms in nature have these. Aside from these general defence forces, our bodies also has the sophisticated defence system that will arrest the invader, take its fingerprint and vital information, manufactures sophisticated weapons against it called antibodies- this usually happens in two weeks from onset of infection so whatever remaining viruses that were not destroyed earlier will be eliminated by these antibodies. What more, these information on the invader aka covid 19 or UK variant (for the moment) will be stored in its memory so that next time that the virus appears, these elite forces immediately recognize it from their CCTV so kaboom! – the virus has no chance. That’s how succeeding infection is prevented. That’s how we get immunity naturally. Exposure to the invader or the virus or bacteria or ay antigen will trigger this immune response, whether we feel the symptoms or not. Thank you, Infinite Lord of the Universe, for this! It has been nearly a year since covid stormed the world- for those where cases of covid were discovered, there is high probability of exposure. Thus high probability that we already are immune. I wish that they test us for antibody, not antigen. Having said such a lengthy introduction, let us now discuss vaccines. Vaccines are a recent technological development that mimic the natural immune process we discussed earlier. Vaccines contain either weakened or inactivated or killed viruses or its toxins or synthetic ones so that they can trigger the immune system to work but will not cause illness or if ever they become ill, it’s not as bad as the real infection. Some vaccines like DPT and anti-measles cause fever and/or rash in some children. As for the covid 19 vaccines, there are now three types that have been developed and will soon undergo Phase 3 clinical trials- meaning large-scale trials. You see, it takes time to develop and test vaccines and anything new for public use. One cannot just say it is effective after 3 months of testing. For one, the manufacturer has to determine how much vaccine is effective- 1 nanogram? 1 ml? Just thinking about this makes my head ache. Then we also have to know how long this effectivity will last- a month? 3 months? One year? What about side effects? Immediate side effects are easy to observe but how about long term side effects? That we have to wait and see. Well, wala pang one year since the vaccines came out so how do we know? We can only theorize and opinionate. But you ask, what about the vaccines being used now? The vaccines that are being given now are under EUA- Emergency Use Authorization. In the Philippines, “through Executive Order #121 s. 2020, vaccines under development can be granted an EUA where there is no adequately approved and available alternative to a vaccine for preventing covid-19 during this present public health emergency…. this cannot be used to market the vaccine commercially.” (doh.gov.ph). So far, Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine and AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine are granted EUA in the Philippines. Thus getting this vaccine is voluntary, because in reality, it is still under testing phase. Just like our natural immune system, the vaccine takes time to have its effect. Of course, because even if humans use high-speed technology and shortcuts, our body still uses the same old reliable technology. And galing niya ano? So between the time of vaccination to the time your body will develop antibodies, you can still get infected. How long will the antibodies from the vaccine last? We still have to find out- as I said, not a year has passed since these vaccines were first tested. How long will the antibodies last if from natural infection? “Cases of re-infection have been reported but remain rare.” (cdc.gov). However, if this virus mutates as it happens– meaning it transforms so much that the body cannot recognize or detect it, then our immune system has to start to process from the beginning.*** More next issue. *** “As a human being, one has been endowed with just enough intelligence to be able to see clearly how utterly inadequate that intelligence is when confronted with what exists.” Albert Einstein
