Photographer: Micah Green / Bloomberg
Photographer: Micah Green / Bloomberg
When it became clear in early 2020 that the Sars-CoV-2 virus posed a pandemic threat, researchers who had been exploring an innovative way of making vaccines was an opportunity. Experimental vaccines with messenger RNA had been recognized for years for their potential speed and flexibility in a fast-moving epidemic, and were some of the first coveted inoculations that passed into human trials. The effort paid off when the vaccines came out late last year Moderna Inc. and the Pfizer Inc./The BioNTech SE partnership was the first to prove effective. Because the technology is so new, however, these vaccines do particularly vulnerable to misinformation campaigns aimed at deterring people from firing.
1. How do mRNA vaccines work?
They work differently from previous generations of vaccines. Instead of introducing the body to an inactivated or weakened version of a virus or a piece of it, they temporarily convert the body’s cells into small vaccine factories. They do this by synthesizing versions of something called messenger RNA, a molecule that normally carries the genetic encoding from the DNA of a cell to its machinery for making proteins. In this case, the mRNA tells the body to make the spike protein that Sars-CoV-2 uses to enter cells. This, in turn, stimulates the body to produce long-lasting antibodies against the virus. Messenger RNA vaccines are developing faster than traditional ones because their production does not require growing viruses or viral proteins within living cells. In addition, the modular nature of mRNA makes the design of new vaccines relatively straightforward. The researchers took several days in January 2020 to work out the mRNA sequence used in Modov’s Covid vaccine.
2. What do we know about its effectiveness?
In its phase 3 trial with more than 30,000 participants, Moderna’s vaccine was 94% effective in preventing symptomatic cases of Covid, the company reported to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. There were no cases of serious illness in people who received the vaccine, compared with 30 in the placebo group. Second, the Pfizer vaccine was 95% effective in stopping the disease in its phase 3 trial with more than 43,000 participants. results published in the New England Journal of Medicine following the peer review process, in which research is examined by experts in the same field. Although there were fewer serious cases in this trial, the limited data were consistent with protection against serious disease. Real-world results are just beginning to be published, but so far they look good. Data from Israel’s largest health organization found that after two doses, Pfizer’s shot was 94% effective against symptomatic covid and prevented 87% of covid hospitalizations, according to experts published results.
3. What do we know about your safety?
Both vaccines can induce them strong reactions, especially after the second shot, including headaches, muscle and joint pain, and fever. For example, in the Modern test, after the second dose of the shot, most people under the age of 65 experienced fatigue and muscle pain; about half had chills and 1 in 6 people had a fever. With both vaccines, these side effects are less common in older adults. After the use of vaccines was authorized, officials began to notice rare cases of severe allergic reactions. One theory is that these are caused by lipid nanoparticles that line the vaccines, helping to transport them to the body. These events are rare, since 2 to 5 cases per million shots fired, according to Jan. 18 data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They can usually be treated with adrenaline, also known as epinephrine; a small minority of cases required intubation. A study of data up to 18 February Massachusetts General Hospital suggested a higher rate of severe allergic reactions, approximately 2.5 cases per 10,000 shots, but it was still concluded that the overall risk “remains extremely low.” Meanwhile, a separate study by Mass General showed that some people succeed delayed eruptions after receiving Moderna’s vaccine. While sometimes dramatic, these eruptions are not dangerous, according to researchers.
4. Who spreads misinformation about vaccines?
Traditional anti-vaccine activists have more and more joined forces with figures in the alt-right, a primarily online political movement based in the United States whose members advocate extremist beliefs that typically focus on the ideas of white nationalism. High profile conservators included Tucker Carlson, Fox News personality raised doubts about Covid vaccines in general. According to the US State Department, several online platforms linked to Russian intelligence have spread misinformation about mRNA vaccines; Modern and Pfizer are companies based in the United States. A Kaiser Family Foundation The survey showed that people who refuse to get vaccinated disproportionately depend on Facebook for information, while people who want the vaccine are more likely to read newspapers or watch news on the net.
5. What do they say?
- These steps were skipped to develop and authorize the vaccines: it is true that the vaccines hit the market in record time, but this is not because the test steps were skipped. The companies accelerated the process by conducting some testing steps in parallel, and in the case of the Moderna vaccine, the U.S. government assumed financial risks by paying to prepare the manufacture before the results occurred.
- Vaccines have never been approved by the FDA: This is true in the sense that so far the agency has only authorized emergency use. This is one pre-existing mechanism created to accelerate access to medical countermeasures in the event of a public health emergency such as the Covid pandemic. He The FDA established in advance that in order to obtain authorization, Covid vaccines must be shown to be at least 50% effective in preventing disease in large-scale trials and must demonstrate safety with two months of follow-up data on participants in the trials. In addition, the vaccines were examined by a group of independent advisors. Both Moderna and Pfizer have said they plan to apply for regular vaccine approval this year.
- Critics have adopted the labeling of mRNA vaccines as a form of gene therapy, insinuating that traits can somehow alter your DNA: they don’t. Although the messenger RNA they use is a type of genetic material, vaccines differ from what is commonly thought to be gene therapy in which they do not change the DNA within the cells. “They do not affect or interact with our DNA in any way,” say the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention explain. In fact, vaccine mRNA molecules, which are short-lived, do not enter the nucleus of cells, where DNA is stored, the CDC notes.
- That lipid nanoparticles in vaccines may contain antifreeze: this is not true. The antifreeze contains ethylene glycol, which is toxic. Lipid nanoparticles include polyethylene glycol, an inert compound found in everyday products such as toothpaste and shampoo and in many medications, including laxatives.
- That vaccines can cause antibody-dependent improvement or a worse case of disease in those who get sick despite inoculation: this was a theoretical concern when testing for Covid vaccines began. There were indications of this problem in studies with some animal vaccines severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), caused by a SARS-CoV-2-related coronavirus. However, no indication of this emerged in human trials of mRNA vaccines for Covid, according to Stanley Perlman, a coronavirus researcher at the University of Iowa, which was part of the FDA advisory panel that reviewed the vaccines.
- That we do not know the long-term effects of vaccines: this is always the case for new vaccines. But the side effects of the vaccine usually appear within the first couple of months after vaccination, which is why the FDA insisted on two months of safety data before authorizing them. Reports of adverse events since then have not detected patterns of death indicating a problem with vaccines, according to the CDC.
- That there are more reports of adverse events for Covid vaccines than for flu vaccines: it is not an appropriate or meaningful comparison, says Aaron Kesselheim, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. The number of such reports tends to increase when there is news of a treatment or vaccine, and there has been nothing in the headlines other than Covid vaccines. In the United States, these reports may be presented by anyone and does not constitute confirmation that a vaccine has caused an adverse event. Given the large number of inoculations, some unfortunate people will get sick and even die shortly after receiving shots, regardless of the vaccine.