I was first alerted to the CDC's backtracking on its decades-long association of vaccines with immunity by this tweet.
We'll dig into this first, but hang on, there's more of this, and I fear more to come.
But first thing's first.
I tracked down the information from these tweets. It only included images which I don't trust, so I found the relevant CDC web page.
(Emphasis is mine to highlight the same phrase.)
Vaccination: The act of introducing a vaccine into the body to produce protection from a specific disease.
I then visited the Wayback machine and verified that the tweet was legit and determined the change was made sometime between May 12 (from which the passage is taken below) and May 18. From the Wayback entry of May 12:
Vaccination: The act of introducing a vaccine into the body to produce immunity to a specific disease.
Sometime during the last week of May this year, the CDC decided to change the definition of "vaccination" from "produce immunity" to "produce protection." The CDC is a large bureaucracy. This was a considered decision with multiple sign-offs. Given the timing and the sudden change of heart, I believe they did this because the word "immunity" had become inconvenient to the political narrative.
Long-time readers know I routinely caution against going with the "hot take" because it's often wrong. That is true here, but not because it was wrong, but because it was more right than perhaps first realized.
In fact, the definition of "vaccination" wasn't the only thing they changed.
Let's take a look at the CDC's current definition of "vaccine."
Vaccine: A preparation that is used to stimulate the body's immune response against diseases. Vaccines are usually administered through needle injections, but some can be administered by mouth or sprayed into the nose.
Now let's take a look at the definition the CDC was still using as of August 26 of this year:
Vaccine: A product that stimulates a person's immune system to produce immunity to a specific disease, protecting the person from that disease. Vaccines are usually administered through needle injections, but can also be administered by mouth or sprayed into the nose.
According to the Wayback machine, this latest change took effect sometime between August 26 and September 2.
Once again, the notion of "immunity" is being downplayed or outright purged like an inconvenient person in a picture of Stalin.
I went back ten years and found just a handful of changes in the definition, but the one constant was the use of the word "immunity" when discussing vaccines.
From August 4, 2011:
Vaccine: A product that produces immunity therefore protecting the body from the disease. Vaccines are administered through needle injections, by mouth and by aerosol.
From June 4, 2016:
Vaccine: A product that stimulates a person's immune system to produce immunity to a specific disease, protecting the person from that disease. Vaccines are usually administered through needle injections, but can also be administered by mouth or sprayed into the nose.
That last definition appears to have held until this year.
Why are they doing this?
I think it's more than just that the vaccines aren't 100% effective, or that they wane in effectiveness over time. That's been true of many common vaccines for decades. (Tetanus shot anyone? Influenza?) It's that it's vastly more difficult to force people to take a vaccine that frankly might not work as well as initially advertised, and likewise equally difficult to continue to mandate authoritarian control over people's behavior if the populace thinks they're immune because they took the vaccine.
There are all kinds of deadly diseases for which there are imperfect vaccines, and yet we went about our daily lives regardless.
This is about instilling fear in not only the unvaccinated but in the vaccinated as well. They are moving the goal posts yet again. Vaccines and masking forever!!
Note also, they monkeyed around with the definition beyond eliminating the concept of immunity.
The full original phrase defining vaccine was this:
A product that stimulates a person's immune system to produce immunity to a specific disease, protecting the person from that disease.
It was changed to this:
A preparation that is used to stimulate the body's immune response against diseases.
"Product" became "preparation" (I guess a benign change), "immune system" to "immune response," and they completely eliminated the notion of it offering protection even though they added the notion of "protection" (downgraded from "immunity") to the definition of "vaccination."
I'm guessing the Department of Defining Vaccine did not consult with the Department of Defining Vaccination.
Probably some bureaucratic turf war.
There is something larger going on here as well, something that has been in the works for a very long time.
Words have always been a commanding form of control in adjudicating beliefs. When you short-circuit the capacity of a person's ability to think logically, they will obey authority without force. In ancient China, the arrival of a new dynasty brought about a "rectification of definitions." This was a ceremony in which the erosion of the meaning of tactical words used within previous dynasties was re-clarified by new rulers. The subjects were ordered to learn these new definitions and never use the old or it would cost them their heads. One who failed this litmus test and spoke wrongly was labeled a traitor.
To review, the CDC has changed the long-standing definition of "vaccination" back in May, and then "vaccine" sometime in the waning days of summer.
What is next?
I suspect whatever the politicians need it to be.
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