Where Does The Vaccine Go
Here’s a peer-reviewed study that shows where intramuscular vaccines travel in macaques . Vaccines mostly remain near the site of injection and local lymph nodes.
This makes sense: Lymph nodes produce white blood cells and antibodies to protect us from disease. A key part of the lymphatic system, lymph nodes also clean up fluids and remove waste materials. Finding pieces of spike protein in the lymph nodes is completely normal, because lymph nodes act as the trash removal service for the body. That means the vaccine did its job and will be cleared from the body.
Another peer-reviewed study tested exactly where an mRNA vaccine went in mice. Most of the mRNA vaccine stayed in the injection site muscle where you get the shot. Look at Table 1. A lot of mRNA vaccine was found in local lymph nodes, which peaked about eight hours after the shot was given. A much smaller amount of mRNA vaccine went to farther away lymph nodes.
A Brief Segue Into How The Human Immune System Works
The immune system is critical to understand because a major problem with the response to covid has been the false information provided by health authorities regarding the immune system. As a reader, think how often the establishment media or the medical establishment spends any time trying to educate the public on the human immune system. Nor do they appear interested in doing anything to educate the public on how to improve or strengthen their immune system. I cover this topic in more detail in the article A Comparison of How Much Effort the CDC Puts Into Immunity Versus Vaccines
Ask yourself why they seem to have no interest in doing this.
Instructions For Making Protein
Each mRNA molecule in a vaccine is a genetic template that provides instructions for making a single viral protein.
When human cells take up the mRNA, they use it to manufacture millions of copies of the protein. These are harmless fragments of the virus, but they provoke an immune response that protects a person against future infection by the whole virus.
However, RNA molecules break down easily, which is why mRNA must be stored at very low temperatures. To further stabilize the mRNA in vaccines, manufacturers encapsulate the molecules in tiny blobs of fat called lipid nanoparticles.
he complete, intact mRNA molecule is essential to its potency as a vaccine, wrote Daan J. A. Crommelin, professor of biopharmaceutics at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, and his colleagues in the Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences in December 2020.
They noted that even minor degradation anywhere along the length of the mRNA strand can slow down or prevent the cell from properly making the viral protein.
Internal emails reveal that in November 2020, the EMA had concerns that batches of the Pfizer vaccine that were proposed for commercial use contained less intact mRNA than previous batches made for clinical trials.
Only around 55% of the mRNA molecules in those early commercial batches remained intact.
The doubts the EMA had have come to light only as a result of a cyberattack on the agencys computer system in December 2020.
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Can Mrna Vaccines Alter A Persons Dna
Paul Offit, MD: Hi, my name is Paul Offit from the Vaccine Education Center. We’ve entered a new realm of vaccines, the so-called genetic vaccines, where you give people not a whole virus, or a weakened virus, or just part of the virus, rather, now what you give them is the gene that codes for a viral protein. So, this is now the genetic era of vaccines. And people can reasonably be concerned. Is it possible then that these genetic vaccines could in any sense alter my DNA?
So for all three reasons, the fact that the mRNA can’t enter the nucleus the fact that the mRNA isn’t DNA and would need to be translated or reverse transcribed back to DNA and because it can’t be integrated into DNA, it is not possible for messenger RNA to alter DNA. The chance of that happening is not small it’s zero. It is not possible.
Thank you.
There Weren’t Many People In The Mrna Therapeutics World Who Would Have Imagined 95% Initial Efficacy Rates Kathryn Whitehead
The theory behind the mRNA vaccine was pioneered by University of Pennsylvania scientists Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman, who both recently received the 2021 Lasker Award, America’s top biomedical research prize. Even in 2019, however, mainstream mRNA vaccines were believed to be at least five years away. The pandemic fast-forwarded this field of medicine by half a decade. Kathryn Whitehead, an associate professor of chemical engineering and biomedical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, and a key collaborator of Weissman and Karikó admits, “there weren’t many people in the mRNA therapeutics world who would have imagined 95% initial efficacy rates in this emergency scenario”.
But now, the possibilities are seemingly endless. Or, as Blakney puts it: “Now it’s like, OK, so it’s worked for a viral glycoprotein, what other vaccines can we make with it? And what can we do beyond that?”
The pioneering work of Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman on mRNA paved the way for the Pfizer and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines.
“The other category is autoimmune diseases,” he says. “That is intriguing because it’s verging beyond the very strict definition of a vaccine.” Fu says the future could involve mRNA “treatments”, for example to reduce inflammation. “In theory, that opens up so many possibilities,” he says.
Zika is one of many diseases that there may be an mRNA vaccine for in the future.
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A Primer On The History Scope And Safety Of Mrna Vaccines And Therapeutics
byKristina Fiore, Director of Enterprise & Investigative Reporting, MedPage Today December 3, 2020
Clinicians will start rolling up their sleeves in just a few weeks to get their first doses of COVID-19 vaccines, both of which use mRNA technology to induce an immune response.
For those who want more information on the history and science of mRNA vaccines and therapeutics before getting their jab, here’s a primer.
How It Works
Biologically, messenger RNA is transcribed from DNA and travels into a cell’s cytoplasm where it’s translated by ribosomes into proteins.
For the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, the synthesized mRNA is cloaked in a lipid nanoparticle in order to evade the immune system when it’s injected. Once it’s inside a cell, the ribosomes will get to work pumping out the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2.
The immune system then mounts a response to that protein, conferring immunity to the virus without ever having been infected by it.
Essentially, instead of pharma producing the proteins via an expensive and difficult process, mRNA enlists the body to do the work. The capability to produce mRNA so rapidly is one reason these vaccines are out front in the global race for a COVID-19 vaccine.
Never Been Done Before?
That’s not completely true. While an mRNA vaccine has never been on the market anywhere in the world, mRNA vaccines have been tested in humans before, for at least four infectious diseases: rabies, influenza, cytomegalovirus, and Zika.
How Long Spike Proteins Last In The Body
The Infectious Disease Society of America estimates that the spike proteins that were generated by COVID-19 vaccines last up to a few weeks, like other proteins made by the body. The immune system quickly identifies, attacks and destroys the spike proteins because it recognizes them as not part of you. This “learning the enemy” process is how the immune system figures out how to defeat the real coronavirus. It remembers what it saw and when you are exposed to coronavirus in the future it can rapidly mount an effective immune response.
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Advances In Mrna Vaccines For Infectious Diseases
- 1College of Veterinary Medicine, Qingdao Agricultural University, Qingdao, China
- 2GSK, Rockville, MD, United States
During the last two decades, there has been broad interest in RNA-based technologies for the development of prophylactic and therapeutic vaccines. Preclinical and clinical trials have shown that mRNA vaccines provide a safe and long-lasting immune response in animal models and humans. In this review, we summarize current research progress on mRNA vaccines, which have the potential to be quick-manufactured and to become powerful tools against infectious disease and we highlight the bright future of their design and applications.
Mrna: Teaching Our Cells To Make Their Own Vaccine
Vaccines work by training our bodies to recognize invading viruses. Traditional vaccines perform this task by introducing a dead, inactive, or modified portion of a virus into our body so that our immune system can learn to recognize and fight this foreign invader.
In the case of Modernas and Pfizer-BioNTech’s mRNA vaccines, we are not injected with a whole virus or even a piece. Instead, we are supplied mRNA that instructs our cells to make a version of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. These instructions teach our cells to become their own vaccine manufacturing plants.
In the lab, scientists create synthetic mRNA containing the spike protein sequence. This encoded information is delivered through the jab, and it instructs some of our cells to manufacture spike proteins. The spike proteins trigger our immune cells to assemble antibodies capable of recognizing them. If the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the virus behind COVID-19, infects a vaccinated person, then the trained antibodies sound an alarm, leading to an immune response to fend off the infection.
The fundamental idea behind using a vaccine to teach a bodys immune system dates back over 200 years, but the use of mRNA is a recent development. Compared to other methods, mRNA leads the way in both speed and flexibility.
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Scientific Journal Articles For Further Reading
Jain S, Venkataraman A, Wechsler ME, Peppas NA. Messenger RNA-based vaccines: Past, present, and future directions in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Adv Drug Deliv Rev. 2021 Oct 9 179:114000. doi: 10.1016/j.addr.2021.114000. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 34637846 PMCID: PMC8502079.
Verbeke R, Lentacker I, De Smedt SC, Dewitte H. The dawn of mRNA vaccines: The COVID-19 case. J Control Release. 2021 May 10 333:511-520. doi: 10.1016/j.jconrel.2021.03.043. Epub 2021 Mar 30. PMID: 33798667 PMCID: PMC8008785.
Microscopic image of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Spike proteins are seen surrounding the outer membrane of each virus particle.
Mythbusters: What Mrna Vaccines Actually Are
The vaccine will alter my DNA!
The vaccine will kill millions like others have done!
Bill Gates is planting a microchip in the coronavirus vaccine!
The MHRA has granted temporary authorisation for Pfizer and BioNTech COVID-19 mRNA vaccine in the UK. Simultaneously, worrying reports have emerged that many people may refuse to get the vaccine once it is available. A key factor in this has been the circulation of misinformation among anti-vaxxer groups. In this blog, we will explore the detrimental impact of misinformation and will also explain everything you need to know about mRNA vaccines.
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Who Can Get A Moderna Booster Shot Right Now
All US adults age 18 and older are eligible to receive COVID-19 booster shots if it’s been at least five months since they’ve received a second dose of either the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine.
Adults are encouraged to get whatever booster dose is available, even if that means mixing and matching vaccine boosters . The CDC’s recommendation of mRNA vaccines — Moderna or Pfizer — also applies to booster shots.
Moderna’s booster shot is free of charge for all adults.
The Covid Shots Activate Latent Viruses
As mentioned earlier, shingles infection is turning out to be a rather common side effect of the COVID shot, and like the neurological, vascular and cardiac damage were seeing, activation of latent viral infections was also predicted.
One reason why latent viral infections are cropping up in response to the shots is because the shots disable your type I interferon pathway. A second reason is because your immune system is overburdened trying to deal with the inflammatory spike proteins flowing through your body. Somethings got to give, so latent viruses are allowed to break through.
Thats not the end of your potential troubles, however, as these coinfections may worsen or accelerate other conditions, such as Bells Palsy, myalgic encephalomyelitis and chronic fatigue syndrome.
Herpes viruses, for example, have been implicated as a trigger of both AIDS18 and chronic fatigue syndrome.19 Some research suggests these diseases dont appear until viruses from different families partner up and the type 1 interferon pathway is disabled.
With all of that in mind, it seems inevitable that, long term, the COVID mass injection campaign will result in an avalanche of a wide range of debilitating chronic illnesses.
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What Are The Types Of Mrna Vaccines
Healthcare providers are currently offering two types of mRNA vaccines in the United States. Comirnaty® is approved for people over 12. The Moderna vaccine is approved for people over 18.
For more than 30 years, scientists have been studying mRNA vaccines to prevent diseases such as:
Scientists are also studying mRNA vaccines to treat diseases like multiple sclerosis and cancer. These treatments use the same mRNA technology to trigger the immune system to create antibodies. Though they arent approved yet, these treatments are currently in clinical trials.
Moderna Covid Vaccine Gets Full Fda Approval: What To Know About Vaccine And Boosters
The FDA has given a full green light to Moderna’s Spikevax vaccine. How will that affect the COVID pandemic?
Moderna’s Spikevax vaccine was authorized for emergency use in December 2020.
The US Food and Drug Administration on Monday announced that it has fully approved the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine — sometimes known by its brand name Spikevax. The FDA’s decision came after studying real-world data from the more than 200 million doses administered in the US since the vaccine received emergency authorization in December 2020.
Acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock , “The public can be assured that Spikevax meets the FDA’s high standards for safety, effectiveness and manufacturing quality required of any vaccine approved for use in the United States.” With today’s announcement, the US joins 62 other countries — including Canada, Japan and Spain — that have approved Moderna’s vaccine.
Woodcock said that the official FDA approval might “instill additional confidence” in Americans who have been hesitant to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. However, experts did not see a large uptick in vaccinations after the full approval of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine in August. A Kaiser Family Foundation poll in September found that official FDA approval of Pfizer’s vaccine played “a minor role” in decisions to get vaccinated.
The FDA also recently reduced the waiting period from six months to five between the primary series of Moderna’s mRNA vaccine and a follow-up booster.
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Then Along Came Covid
So, 30 years of painstaking research allowed several groups of scientists including those at Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna to bring mRNA vaccine technology to the threshold of actually working. The companies had built platforms that, theoretically, could be used to create a vaccine for any infectious disease simply by inserting the right mRNA sequence for that disease.
Then along came COVID-19. Within weeks of identifying the responsible virus, scientists in China had determined the structure of all of its genes, including the genes that make the spike protein, and published this information on the Internet.
Within minutes, scientists 10,000 miles away began working on the design of an mRNA vaccine. Within weeks, they had made enough vaccine to test it in animals, and then in people. Just 11 months after the discovery of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, regulators in the United Kingdom and the US confirmed that an mRNA vaccine for COVID-19 is effective and safely tolerated, paving the path to widespread immunization. Previously, no new vaccine had been developed in less than four years.
Early Steps Toward Mrna Vaccines
About 30 years ago, a handful of scientists began exploring whether vaccines could be made more simply. Instead of injecting a weakened virus, or a piece of the viruss protein coat, they tried an alternative approach: what if, instead of injecting a piece of the virus into the body, you caused the bodys cells to make that piece of the virus? This approach also would educate the immune system to recognize the virus.
How could you do that? First, you would need to make the mRNA. Second, youd have to inject mRNA into the body and then get it into the bodys cells.
The genes of a virus make messenger RNAs that produce multiple proteins that make its coat each mRNA makes a different piece of the protein coat. A gene with a specific structure makes an mRNA of a specific structure, which then makes a protein of a specific structure, such as the spike protein.
The first part making the mRNA was relatively easy. The second part getting the injected mRNA into the bodys cells took 30 years to figure out. The injected mRNA would need to travel in the blood to the immune system cells that would gobble it up and start making the piece of protein that teaches the immune system to attack the virus.
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Early Concerns Raised Over Levels Of Intact Mrna In Pfizer Vaccine
- Recent studies confirm that mRNA vaccines are safe and provide a high degree of protection against COVID-19.
- However, leaked emails show that there were doubts last year about early commercial batches of the Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA vaccine.
- The emails reveal that the European Medicines Agency raised concerns with Pfizer that the vaccine contained lower levels of intact mRNA molecules than expected.
- The company resolved the issue to the satisfaction of the EMA and regulatory agencies in the United States and Canada.
All data and statistics are based on publicly available data at the time of publication. Some information may be out of date. Visit our coronavirus huband follow our live updates page for the most recent information on the COVID-19 pandemic.
There is growing evidence that vaccination programs are already protecting some of the most vulnerable individuals from COVID-19, reducing the number of severe infections and preventing deaths.
While clinical trials in 2020 found mRNA vaccines to be safe and effective, several recent studies suggest that they also provide a high degree of protection in the real world.
For instance, a study by researchers in the United Kingdom, one that has not yet been peer-reviewed, found that a single dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is up to 79.3% effective at reducing the risk of hospital admission with COVID-19 in adults over 80 years of age.