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A comment on Ultraviolet Irradiation of Blood: “The Cure That Time Forgot”? (2018). Parent comment

Re:Ultraviolet Irradiation of Blood: “The Cure That Time For... by Retric on Friday April 24, 2020 @12:03PM (#22969496)
To expand on the unknown method of action. It could for example be removing other pathogens from the blood that lets the immune system focus on covid-19. Alternatively, random cellular damage could clause a useful immune response. Etc etc.

Medicine has often found treatments that works without any real understanding of why.

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Re:Ultraviolet Irradiation of Blood: “The Cure That Time For... by klenwell on Friday April 24, 2020 @12:39PM (#22970004)
Isn't this true of Pasteur and his initial application of vaccines?

While he identified the mechanism of inoculation, my understanding is he theorized that it was due to the attenuated pathogen outcompeting the virulent one for nutrients rather than due to stimulation of the immune system.

I think I got that from a lecture by a science historian once. This idea seems to be glossed in the Wikipedia article on Pasteur here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Pasteur#Anthrax

Do I have that right?

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Re:Ultraviolet Irradiation of Blood: “The Cure That Time For... by belltaco on Friday April 24, 2020 @01:44PM (#22970892)
>While he identified the mechanism of inoculation, my understanding is he theorized that it was due to the attenuated pathogen outcompeting the virulent one for nutrients rather than due to stimulation of the immune system.

How could it outcompete the actual virus if the actual virus isn't there yet at the time of vaccination?

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Re:Ultraviolet Irradiation of Blood: “The Cure That Time For... by klenwell on Friday April 24, 2020 @08:06PM (#22974319)
Good point. Maybe the theory was the attenuated pathogen would consume available nutrients thereby depriving the real pathogen when it arrived?
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