As a general definition, “adjuvants” are things that are added to vaccine formulations, to make them more effective and potent; and, to clarify that definition, they generally must rise above the level of being mere “excipients” (i.e., the types of pharmaceutical additives, such as diluting, liquefying, anti-caking, preservative, or other agents that help make the active ingredients of a drug function better), and must rise to a level that experts refer to as “immuno-stimulatory”. And, anyone interested in this topic also should realize that there are a number of “gray areas” where it isn’t clear whether some particular compound should be regarded as a mere excipient, or as an actual adjuvant. As an example, if a topical mucosal vaccine contains an agent called a “muco-adherent”, which will cause vaccine particles in that formulation to cling more tightly (and/or for a longer period of time) to a mucous membrane, that agent might be called either an adjuvant, or an excipient; and, various phrases like “adjuvant-like activity” also are used, to deal with those types of “grey areas”.

          However, rather than becoming entangled in or distracted by those "grey areas", a clear focus needs to be placed on a very unpleasant truth, which lurks behind the “immuno-stimulatory” label that is commonly used to describe and defend adjuvants.

          That highly unpleasant fact is this: essentially all adjuvants that are added to injected vaccines are, in truth, deliberately and intentionally irritating, inflammatory, distress-causing additives. Stated in other words, they are harsh, unpleasant, and "necessarily nasty" chemicals. Why? Because of a reason that no one has been able to overcome, or avoid, or eliminate, before now. Their goal, their role, their job, and their assigned task, is to rapidly and seriously irritate the muscle cells, at the site of an injection. Why? So that those distressed muscle cells will rapidly begin sending out “distress signals” (in the form of messenger molecules called “cytokines”), which will attract and recruit mobile immune cells to hustle over, as quickly as possible, to the site of the injection, so that the immune cells will be able to begin processing the vaccine particles, as quickly as possible, before those particles (and the antigen sequences they are carrying) can be seriously diluted, diffused, or degraded, by the normal cell and tissue repair processes at the site where the vaccine was injected.

          A huge portion of the opposition to vaccines, among people who are often labelled “anti-vaxxers”, actually arises from the unpleasantness of the adjuvants which must be added to injected vaccines, in order to protect as many people as possible, whenever a large population is inoculated.

          However, because of how “MALT-targeting” vaccines are designed, and because of how they function, we believe that they can and will completely eliminate any need to add any harsh and unpleasant “adjuvants” to them, to make them effective; and, if that goal can be accomplished, it will be so important, and so widely welcomed and appreciated, that these new classes of vaccines may well be called “Post-Adjuvant Vaccines.”

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