Tug-of-war with US state-controlled nonmedical vaccine exemptions
All 50 states allow medical exemption from vaccination. Medical vaccination exemptions have been in place for a long time for people who are immunocompromised (with weakened immune system) or for various other conditions that make getting vaccinated dangerous. These are necessary exemptions, however they leave very sick people vulnerable to disease. Over the last decade many states across […]
Why do we need to keep vaccinating if the disease is “gone”?
The short answer? The diseases are not gone. The long answer? It’s true that diseases we vaccinate against are becoming very rare in developed parts of the world, however, we owe that to a number of factors. We wash our hands, clean our food and the things we encounter, take precautions with the sick because we are […]
Stem Cells
Pretend you are a scientist researching a new drug for liver disease. You have decided you would like to test your drug out on a very specific type of liver cell. So you take some cells you harvested from liver tissue and you grow them in colonies (which are very hard to keep alive), feed […]