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question about this and vaccines in general... would this be beneficial to someone who already contracted the disease? at the early stages at least? would it help that person recover faster or lessen the effects of the disease?

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My web search suggested that normally existing vaccines aren't helpful this way, but that there is ongoing research on "therapeutic vaccines" that would be.

https://www.webmd.com/vaccines/features/treating-disease-wit...

The article says none are currently available as treatments for any infectious disease.

We might be talking about different things, but many vaccines are potentially useful post-infection particularly for slower diseases, as it doesn't necessarily help the actual infection, but can help prevent it from spreading to new cells.

It's highly dependent on the disease, how it spreads, etc. But it is a thing.

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