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Comment by rascul | Hacker News Reader

> > definition of vaccine was modified to fit that new drug

> Please tell me if I'm mistaking what you mean, but I don't think the definition of a vaccine was modified? Instead I think the public had a working lay definition, based on the success of previous vaccination efforts. I think the definition was always something like a medicine that enhances immunity against a disease.

The CDC did modify their definitions of "vaccine" and "vaccination" on their web site, and some people have taken that to mean various things. I think it was changed early May, 2021.

https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vac-gen/imz-basics.htm

https://web.archive.org/web/20210412182439/https://www.cdc.g...

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Thanks for the links!

Original definition:

> Vaccine: A product that stimulates a person’s immune system to produce immunity to a specific disease, protecting the person from that disease. Vaccines are usually administered through needle injections, but can also be administered by mouth or sprayed into the nose.

Current definition:

> Vaccine: A preparation that is used to stimulate the body’s immune response against diseases. Vaccines are usually administered through needle injections, but some can be administered by mouth or sprayed into the nose.

That new definition sounds pretty broad. Does that make vitamin C a vaccine? I think it also stimulates the body's immune response against diseases.

> Does that make vitamin C a vaccine?

I would say no, since vitamin c doesn’t enhance the body’s immune system against a specific disease.

And the new definition seems to be about the same as the old one, to me at least. The only material difference was the removal of “protecting” (I don’t have the specific wording in front of me)

While I can’t attest to what exactly their intent in that deletion was, I can imagine it may have been to remove the temptation to make bad faith interpretations of what “protection” is meant in this context. Clearly though the original context was that vaccines protect us in the same was we mean when we say car seatbelts protect against accidents.

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