How are smallpox vaccines and flu shots similar?

Instead, the smallpox vaccine is given using a two-pronged needle that is dipped into the vaccine solution and then used to prick the skin several times to deliver the vaccine into the shallow layers of skin. The smallpox vaccine is grown on cell culture. read more

They are not particularly alike. The smallpox vaccine used cowpox, a poxvirus that was similar enough to smallpox to protect against it but usually didn’t cause serious illness. read more

In addition to known scarring from the smallpox vaccine, there is another vaccine that causes a similar scar. This is known as the Bacillus Calmette-Guérin or BCG vaccine. This vaccine is used to protect people against human tuberculosis. read more

Flu vaccine does not worsen rheumatic disease and is generally well tolerated by rheumatic disease patients. However, the smallpox vaccine now is use is a live virus vaccine. This virus will spread rapidly in the bodies of patients whose immune systems are weakened by drugs or disease, and in patients with skin rashes. read more

Instead, the vaccinia virus is injected. Because this virus is so similar to the variola virus, the body can usually make enough antibodies to fight off the smallpox virus. Through the widespread administration of the smallpox vaccine, doctors declared the smallpox virus “extinct” in the United States in 1952. read more