He made beer that’s also a vaccine

[steveh01420]

What do you folks think about this?  

He made beer that’s also a vaccine. Now controversy is brewing...

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/vaccine-beer-polyomavirus-chris-buck

Merry Christmas,

Steve

[Thia St.Martin]

Hey Steve!

Merry Christmas!

I don’t know that much about polyomavirus, but after a quick read up it looks like this is a virus that pretty much everyone has without issue. Over 80% of people are already seropostive, which means we’ve been exposed already naturally and have made antibodies already.

M

It’s more of a problem for immune compromised people and since they’re immune systems won’t be able to launch a response anyways, so the vaccine would work for them only if everyone else gets vaccinated and the viruses aren’t as out there in the environment for the few vulnerable people to pick it up and maybe get sick from it.

Reminds me of chicken pox.  We all had it, some scars, it sucked but there were < 200 deaths per year attributable to it, so someone decided we needed a vaccine.

Now people get chicken pox, but anyone born before the mid 90s when the vaccine came into use is for the rest of their lives vulnerable to shingles. Chicken pox is a herpes virus which stays in your body forever and without repeated environmental exposure (natural booster) the virus can come back as our immunity diminishes and our immune systems calm down as we age.

So now we have ~100 deaths per year from shingles and several generations of people who only got it the natural way who will have to get a couple shingles shots 

Maybe more of an answer than you were looking for. Ha!

I’m not an anti-vaxer by any stretch, but 

If anyone is up for getting together somewhere over the holiday break let us know, even if it’s just the Thirsty Robot or something else local.

T

Sent from my iPad

On Dec 20, 2025, at 9:25 AM, steveh01420 <steve...@gmail.com> wrote:

What do you folks think about this?  

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[Thia St.Martin]

Hey Steve!

Merry Christmas!

I don’t know that much about polyomavirus, but after a quick read up it looks like this is a virus that pretty much everyone has without issue. Over 80% of people are already seropostive, which means we’ve been exposed already naturally and have made antibodies already.

It’s more of a problem for immune compromised people and since they’re immune systems won’t be able to launch a response anyways the vaccine would work for them only if everyone else gets vaccinated and the viruses aren’t as out there in the environment for the few vulnerable people to pick it up and maybe get sick from it.

Reminds me of chicken pox.  We all had it, some scars, it sucked but there were < 100 deaths per year attributable to it, so someone decided we needed a vaccine.

Now people get chicken pox, but anyone born before the mid 90s when the vaccine came into use is for the rest of their lives vulnerable to shingles. Chicken pox is a herpes virus which stays in your body forever and without repeated environmental exposure (natural booster) the virus can come back as our immunity diminishes and our immune systems calm down as we age.

So now we have ~100 deaths per year from shingles and several generations of people who only got it the natural way who will have to get shingles shots instead.  We just traded one problem for another in a different and arguably more vulnerable population. One of many instances where we shoulda left well enough alone.

I’m not an anti-vaxer by any stretch, but it seems to me this guy is taking personal experiences and making the everyone’s problem.

Maybe more of an answer than you were looking for. Ha!

If I haven’t bored you to death and you’ve read this far….if anyone is up for getting together somewhere over the holiday break let us know, even if it’s just the Thirsty Robot or something else local.

[Thia St.Martin]

Hit send too soon, so just read the second one if you care to and if not, skip to the end.

T

Sent from my iPad

On Dec 20, 2025, at 10:59 AM, 'Thia St.Martin' via Fitchburg Order of Ale Makers (FOAM) <FOAM...@googlegroups.com> wrote:



To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/FOAMclub/46B737DC-9367-4539-B83B-75D5B1E516C1%40yahoo.com.