Bill Harvey: Eye of the tornado

Bah, humbug. Just as the Harvey household was looking forward to a gathering of the clan to enjoy a slice of vegan surprise, freshly taken from the ‘meecrowarvay’ (the 2020 Monty Python Surreal Comedy award goes to Nigella), the latest rise in Covid cases means that we, like I assume most people, will ignore the government-approved super-spreading five-day event. Back on the Zoom.

On a recent Zoom session with my two brothers, the quiz question of the year was raised; what is the difference between vaccination and inoculation? It seems the two terms are often used interchangeably, but strictly speaking: Inoculation is the introduction of an antigen or a pathogen into a living organism (plant or animal). This may be to trigger an immune response (in which case it is acting as a vaccine) or to cause a disease for study, species control and so on. So, for example, a lethal injection by anthrax might be classed as an inoculation but not vaccination.