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Also interesting to note that this is a mRNA vaccine, where the production of antigen within the cell is induced by injecting a RNA sequence instead of a disabl
by bpizzi 6y ago
Also interesting to note that this is a mRNA vaccine, where the production of antigen within the cell is induced by injecting a RNA sequence instead of a disabled virus.
- andy_ppp 6y agoWhat extra does a virus have over and above some RNA? Is it just a spike protein for injection into a cell or does it depend?
- empthought 6y agoThe RNA is read by human cells and the spike protein antigen is created by human cells; it’s not particularly viral RNA.
- andy_ppp 6y agoOkay pretty terrifying! How long does this random RNA stay in your cells?
- Eric_WVGG 6y agoThere’s nothing random about it. Here’s a good layperson rundown: https://www.phgfoundation.org/briefing/rna-vaccines https://www.phgfoundation.org/briefing/rna-vaccines
- bpizzi 6y agoI fail to see what is terrifying, exactly? Care to elaborate?
- andy_ppp 6y agoIf I dumped some random code into a computer program you were building, would you expect things to still work correctly? I’d love to know if that is wildly inaccurate...
- bpizzi 6y agoYes but... no one is dumping anything remotely random here :) It's using existing building mechanism in cells to have it build a specific protein that will bind to a specific pathogen. And lot of clinical tests to try to detect if those proteins being built have other effects than instructing the cells to create the antibodies we want. It's roughly the same mechanism at work when you inject disabled pathogen and hoping that the cells will produce the same antibodies, it's just a faster, safer, more precise way to induce it. Heck, it's even the same mechanism that occurs when your cells encounters a wild, random virus, like it may be happening a lot more than you think, and, well, you're still alive :) By the way, you may be thinking under the assumption that the 'program' is the DNA, and that mRNA vaccines is changing it some way or another, which is not, this is not genetic therapy.
- thehappypm 6y agoAlmost all medicine does something weird and scary. Interfere with body chemistry, trick the immune system. Many vaccines are dead viruses - that's pretty scary too! That scariness is exactly why we did trials for 6 months, and why 20,000+ volunteers were closely monitored for half a year to make sure this technique is not harmful.
- mlindner 6y agoUntil your body kills the infected cells. Viruses stick themselves into your cells all over the place. It's how you get the common cold. Approximately 8% of your DNA is made of past viruses that humans and their ancestors caught.
- empthought 6y ago? RNA is pretty ephemeral. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Translation_(biology) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Translation_(biology)