4 ms·
I was reading about Moderna today, and I found a number of articles from 2017-18 expressing concern about their secretiveness and impatience with both safety pr
by JasonFruit 6y ago
I was reading about Moderna today, and I found a number of articles from 2017-18 expressing concern about their secretiveness and impatience with both safety precautions and the failures that are inevitable in drug trials, based on the experiences of former employees and science journals. I can't deny that makes me nervous. I didn't see anything about it after that time, however.
- 93po 6y agoCombined with their legal immunity from any liability, that can be concerning.
- casefields 6y agoThat's true, but also true in general which is why we have a National Vaccine Injury Fund aka vaccine court: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Vaccine_Injury_Compensation_Program https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Vaccine_Injury_Compen...
- benevol 6y agoPlus the fact that they want us to let them hack our DNA. It's a bit like giving them root to the OS of my being.
- fsh 6y agoNo, mRNA is not DNA.
- abiogenesis 6y agoNot that I agree with the parent but isn't technically mRNA used to "hack" DNA to make it synthesize a specific protein?
- detaro 6y agono. DNA doesn't synthesize proteins. Roughly: Protein descriptions are "read" from DNA into mRNA, which is then used by ribosomes to synthesize proteins. An mRNA vaccine adds additional mRNA with instructions to synthesize the vaccine-specific protein to the cells. So it uses some of the same mechanisms that are also used to generate proteins from DNA, but does not involve DNA itself.
- programmarchy 6y agoRight. This process happens outside of the nucleus of the cell. Perhaps people are getting mRNA vaccines confused with CRISPR, which _is_ a technique to modify DNA.
- barbs 6y agoDo you have any links to these articles?
- zzzeek 6y agoI came across these in my own reading today related to moderna's early troubles, from 2016 / 2017: https://www.statnews.com/2017/01/10/moderna-trouble-mrna/ https://www.statnews.com/2017/01/10/moderna-trouble-mrna/ https://www.statnews.com/2016/09/13/moderna-therapeutics-biotech-mrna/ https://www.statnews.com/2016/09/13/moderna-therapeutics-bio...
- JasonFruit 6y agoZzzeek has found exactly the ones I read.
- sleepydog 6y agoI recently heard an interview with their chief medical officer that directly addressed that criticism. https://freakonomics.com/podcast/vaccine/ https://freakonomics.com/podcast/vaccine/ I don't know if it will change your mind, as he basically says that it may have been valid criticism in 2015-2016, but not anymore.
- JasonFruit 6y agoI'm glad to hear that, and I hope it's true. I'd like to see a safe, effective vaccine. Thanks!