Share my Vaccine
April 29, 2009 3:51 PM Subscribe
Swine Flu / Pandemic Influenza. Let's pretend the epidemic is raging through the countryside I have ONE dose of life-saving vaccine and FIVE people in my family to save. Strategy? To put it another way, if ONE person has been recently inoculated, can that person somehow SHARE his or her immunity in some way?
This post was deleted for the following reason: Sorry, this is total chatfilter -- mathowie
Quarantine everyone except the inoculated person, who must be thoroughly sanitized before contact with the rest of the family.
I suppose that's useful for having someone to go out and get supplies, interface with other humans, etc.
posted by nat at 4:05 PM on April 29, 2009
I suppose that's useful for having someone to go out and get supplies, interface with other humans, etc.
posted by nat at 4:05 PM on April 29, 2009
To put it another way, if ONE person has been recently inoculated, can that person somehow SHARE his or her immunity in some way?
No, that's not how the immune system works.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 4:06 PM on April 29, 2009
No, that's not how the immune system works.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 4:06 PM on April 29, 2009
A mom can pass certain immunities through her breastmilk, but they are passive immunities and will not last once the child is weened. However I'm not sure if it would work for pork flu and also not sure you'd want to give a vaccine to a breastfeeding mother.
And oh yeah, the vaccine doesn't exist.
posted by sully75 at 4:10 PM on April 29, 2009
And oh yeah, the vaccine doesn't exist.
posted by sully75 at 4:10 PM on April 29, 2009
This is a little extreme, but hey, a thought experiment can be extreme. Here's how I'd handle that:
Give it to the one with a job or the one with the most lucrative job. This person is then the "outside" person who gets the money and buys the supplies, and everyone else stays in the house until the epidemic passes. When purchasing supplies, they only buy things that are sealed (no fresh veg or fruit that might have been handled by sickies in public). All supplies' exterior packagings are disinfected (with alcohol, Purell, Lysol, whatever) when they arrive in the house by someone wearing disposable latex gloves.
When the "outside" person comes home, they don't touch anything or anyone until they've had a shower, and their clothes for the day have gone right into the wash.
In the real world, maintaining that level of isolation would be very difficult for more than a few days as everyone else would be climbing the walls, but it would greatly increase your overall protection. That of course presumes the vaccine or immunity of the one person is actually 100%. If not, then all bets are off of course.
posted by barc0001 at 4:12 PM on April 29, 2009 [1 favorite]
Give it to the one with a job or the one with the most lucrative job. This person is then the "outside" person who gets the money and buys the supplies, and everyone else stays in the house until the epidemic passes. When purchasing supplies, they only buy things that are sealed (no fresh veg or fruit that might have been handled by sickies in public). All supplies' exterior packagings are disinfected (with alcohol, Purell, Lysol, whatever) when they arrive in the house by someone wearing disposable latex gloves.
When the "outside" person comes home, they don't touch anything or anyone until they've had a shower, and their clothes for the day have gone right into the wash.
In the real world, maintaining that level of isolation would be very difficult for more than a few days as everyone else would be climbing the walls, but it would greatly increase your overall protection. That of course presumes the vaccine or immunity of the one person is actually 100%. If not, then all bets are off of course.
posted by barc0001 at 4:12 PM on April 29, 2009 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Rendus at 3:59 PM on April 29, 2009 [2 favorites]