Quote:
Originally Posted by Rockstar
According to the definition of immunity provided by our U.S. Center for Disease Control and Merriam-Webster dictionary they most certainly do provide an immunity.
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Let's see then:
Merriam-Webster about immunity:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/immunity
Merriam-Webster about vaccines:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vaccine
CDC about immunity:
https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vac-gen/immunity-types.htm
Immunity stems from the latin word "immunis" - excempt. Immunity in its basic, original sense means "you cannot be harmed at all". That's never the case with vaccines, never was, never will be. In the watered-down version immunity means "a certain resistance/protection". That's something vaccines offer, to a varying degree depending on the disease and the vaccine.
A vaccine never offers lifelong, complete immunity. A vaccination never guarantees that the vaccinated person will never get the disease the vaccine is against.
Vaccines prepare the immune system to deal with an infection so that it can react quickly once the virus shows up, which in turn means that the virus can ideally be dealt with long before the infection has serious consequences. But this protection is not perfect, because everyone's immune system reacts differently, because some viruses can cause damage before the immune systems reaction kicks in or for a number of other reasons.
Also the protection is reduced over time. The immune system stores virus information in special cells, and over time these cells die off. In some cases (some children's diseases like chickenpox) the immune system produces so many cells with the virus information that some of them will be around till the end of your life, which means that the immune system will have a way to quickly react at any point in your life. Whenever you are reinfected with chickenpox, your body will quickly react to it - but you still can be infected.