The anti-vaccine crowd is a funny bunch. They apparently have no faith in science but will believe the most outlandish conspiracy theories about vaccines. These theories unfortunately dovetail right into the conspiracy fact that the big pharma companies should best be described as cartels because of their rapacious profit-first and damn everyone else mindset.

This brings us to an interesting look into the future. A Japanese research team said it developed a vaccine to remove so-called zombie cells that accumulate with age and damage nearby cells, causing aging-related diseases including arterial stiffening.

The team, led by Juntendo University professor Toru Minamino, stated that mice given the vaccine showed decreases in the zombie cells, known as senescent cells, and in areas affected by arterial stiffening. The results of their study were published last week at Nature Aging.

Senescent cells are cells that have stopped dividing but do not die. They can damage nearby healthy cells by releasing chemicals that bring on inflammation.

The vaccine allows the body to create antibodies that attach themselves to the senescent cells, which are then removed by white blood cells connecting to the antibodies.

There are already drugs that can remove senescent cells from the body, but they are related to cancer treatments with many side effects. The new vaccine would apparently have fewer side effects and longer lasting results.

So now we arrive back at the question that started this short piece. How will the foil-hat anti-vax crowd react to a vaccine that appears to be able to extend the life of their physical bodies? Will they scream that Bill Gates financed it to get tracking chips in them? Or will they line up and say, “Hey! That sounds really cool to me?”