Vaccines to combat infectious diseases

Slides: https://www.andreashandel.com/presentations/

Andreas Handel

2025-10-29

Question

What is the main mechanism by which a vaccine protects from infection:

  1. It induces a protective metabolic state
  2. It induces a protective immune response
  3. It induces a protective disease avoidance state
  4. All of A) - C)
  5. None of A) - C)

About me

  • Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics in the College of Public Health at the University of Georgia.
  • Modeling and analysis of infectious diseases, mainly influenza and norovirus.
  • Work on better understanding the spread and control of infectious diseases.
  • Teach courses on infectious diseases, data analysis/biostatistics and epidemiology.

More about me

  • Originally from Germany, I moved to the US for graduate school. I have now lived in the US longer than in Germany.
  • I trained as a physicist, I have never taken an epidemiology or biostatistics class in my life.
  • If I don’t work, I grow, cook and eat, and mountain bike.

Vaccines are pretty good

xkcd.com

Vaccines are pretty good

Pollard et al 2021

The idea behind vaccines

Infection

Healthy \(\rightarrow\) Infected \(\rightarrow\) Symptomatic (often) \(\rightarrow\) Recovered and Immune (good!) or dead (bad!)

The idea behind vaccines

Infection

Healthy \(\rightarrow\) Infected \(\rightarrow\) Symptomatic (often) \(\rightarrow\) Recovered and Immune (good!) or dead (bad!)

Vaccination

Healthy \(\rightarrow\) Get Vaccine \(\rightarrow\) Symptomatic (sometimes) \(\rightarrow\) Immune (often)

What are vaccines

  • Parts of the pathogen against which you want to create immunity

  • Sometimes other components that help induce the immune response