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This feels a bit premature to me. I'm not convinced that the vaccines are 100% bad but they were a novel technology and I'm not sure we're far enough along to

This feels a bit premature to me. I'm not convinced that the vaccines are 100% bad but they were a novel technology and I'm not sure we're far enough along to judge them objectively yet. Regardless of how good they are, they were definitely over-sold.

thfuran 3y ago
The covid vaccines are the trendy thing to talk about with lay people, not the underlying thing the award is for.
- gadders 3y ago
  If it's for the underlying technology, rather than a specific implementation, then I'm all for it and it's well deserved.
tgv 3y ago
IMO (but I'm barely more than a layman), mRNA already offers a safer delivery mechanism than previous vaccination methods, and the massive COVID campaigns have revealed much about the virus, but nothing about the vaccination method. The number of deaths due to COVID has been estimated at over 5 million. The fact that it didn't get much higher, and we can stroll about like nothing happened, is already a miracle. Edit: didn't finish... So what is your worry? Sure, there is the possibility of abusing the tech, like any tech. But healthwise?
- gadders 3y ago
  I misunderstood. I thought the award was for the vaccination, rather than the underlying technology. The technology is definitely worth an award. I think that there is enough "noise" over COVID vaccine side-effects that we don't yet know whether long term it is safe. I also think that given the politicisation of COVID (for instance even discussion of the lab leak theory was gas-lit), I don't think politicians would admit to an issue even if there was one.
  - funcDropShadow 3y ago
    My understanding is that almost all side-effects of mRNA covid vaccines originate in the fact that the body produces a part of the virus. If that part of the virus can damage the body, so can the vaccine. This is the mechanism for the myocarditis after vaccination. But it also means that the probability to get myocarditis from an actual infection is much higher because of the exponential growth of the real virus. If that understanding holds up against scrutiny in the future, mRNA vaccines are an extremely safe and capable platform to deliver vaccines.
    - gadders 3y ago
      If that is what happens, then I agree with you.
    - the-rc 3y ago
      To think of it in programming terms: the original vaccines had code with a length of 4000-4300 nucleotides. Yes, that protein might trigger reactions after injection. But, then, what would you expect from the virus, which has almost 30,000 nucleotides, encoding an additional 28 proteins, including those involved in replication and camouflaging? The only scenario in which you have better chances not taking the vaccine is by making sure you never get exposed to the virus, for years.

thfuran 3y ago

The covid vaccines are the trendy thing to talk about with lay people, not the underlying thing the award is for.

gadders 3y ago
If it's for the underlying technology, rather than a specific implementation, then I'm all for it and it's well deserved.

tgv 3y ago

IMO (but I'm barely more than a layman), mRNA already offers a safer delivery mechanism than previous vaccination methods, and the massive COVID campaigns have revealed much about the virus, but nothing about the vaccination method. The number of deaths due to COVID has been estimated at over 5 million. The fact that it didn't get much higher, and we can stroll about like nothing happened, is already a miracle. Edit: didn't finish... So what is your worry? Sure, there is the possibility of abusing the tech, like any tech. But healthwise?

gadders 3y ago
I misunderstood. I thought the award was for the vaccination, rather than the underlying technology. The technology is definitely worth an award. I think that there is enough "noise" over COVID vaccine side-effects that we don't yet know whether long term it is safe. I also think that given the politicisation of COVID (for instance even discussion of the lab leak theory was gas-lit), I don't think politicians would admit to an issue even if there was one.
- funcDropShadow 3y ago
  My understanding is that almost all side-effects of mRNA covid vaccines originate in the fact that the body produces a part of the virus. If that part of the virus can damage the body, so can the vaccine. This is the mechanism for the myocarditis after vaccination. But it also means that the probability to get myocarditis from an actual infection is much higher because of the exponential growth of the real virus. If that understanding holds up against scrutiny in the future, mRNA vaccines are an extremely safe and capable platform to deliver vaccines.
  - gadders 3y ago
    If that is what happens, then I agree with you.
  - the-rc 3y ago
    To think of it in programming terms: the original vaccines had code with a length of 4000-4300 nucleotides. Yes, that protein might trigger reactions after injection. But, then, what would you expect from the virus, which has almost 30,000 nucleotides, encoding an additional 28 proteins, including those involved in replication and camouflaging? The only scenario in which you have better chances not taking the vaccine is by making sure you never get exposed to the virus, for years.