this post was submitted on 23 Sep 2025
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Science Memes

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[–] AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 week ago (8 children)

What makes the vaccine more effective than actual exposure to the actual virus? I tried googling but couldn't find an eli5 version

[–] moobythegoldensock 3 points 1 week ago (5 children)

Would you prefer to test your smoke alarms by:

  1. Pushing the “Test” button on your smoke alarm?
  2. Lighting your house on fire?

The entire point of the vaccine is to prevent the virus. If you wait until you’ve been exposed to the virus, you’ve defeated the entire purpose of the vaccine.

[–] AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 week ago (3 children)

In the context of this discussion, you HAVE been exposed to the virus. To use your analogy, you're hitting the test button when your house is already on fire. Hence the reason why I asked the question in the first place

[–] moobythegoldensock 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Oh, I misunderstood. My apologies.

Hepatitis B takes 60-90 days to incubate. Because of the slow incubation, the vaccine works best if started within 24 hours of exposure, and can still work if administered up to 7 days after exposure. Newborns are typically exposed during birth, not while growing in the womb.

Compare to, say, the COVID-19, where the incubation is 2-14 days. The vaccine takes about 10-14 days to set in, so if you take it post-exposure in most cases you’ll be done with the actual infection before the vaccine even starts working.

[–] AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Newborns are typically exposed during birth, not while growing in the womb.

Oh interesting. I hadn't considered they could be isolated from it during pregnancy.

[–] dickalan@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago

Yeah, the placenta is pretty bad ass

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