Thursday, the president Joe Biden An extensive federal vaccine authorization was announced to vaccinate millions of Americans to contain the COVID outbreak in the country.
The President stated that the new authorization could affect as many as 100 million American citizens in response to the surge in Delta variants and the large number of unvaccinated people in the country. He said that people’s refusal to get vaccinated “costs all of us.”
Vaccine hesitation Prevented some people from being hit when the COVID spread across the country.So what is an mRNA vaccine-the type of COVID vaccine made in the United States Pfizer And Moderna-are they safe?
How mRNA vaccines work
The role of mRNA vaccines is slightly different from previous vaccines. Many vaccines are characterized by a weak or inactive version of the bacteria injected into the body, teaching the immune system to fight it in the future without being hit by a proper infection.
The mRNA vaccine does not work like this. Instead, they use mRNA or messenger RNA, which is an important set of instructions that tell our cells how to produce protein, which is necessary for our body to function. Our cells have been using mRNA.
The mRNA COVID vaccine contains instructions that tell our cells to produce a protein that is related to a little viral spike protein located on the outside of the virus.
On its own, this spike is harmless. But our body still believes that it shouldn’t exist, so the immune system prepares a response and remembers the response for use when a real infection occurs.
How long has the mRNA vaccine been developed?
The emergency authorization of Pfizer Vaccine last December marked the first time in history that an mRNA vaccine was authorized for use in humans. But mRNA vaccine technology has been developed for decades.
Hungarian-born scientist Katalin Karikó came to the United States in the 1980s. His idea was to use mRNA to produce proteins in the body at will. He is often regarded as the main figure in the development of this technology.
Before she collaborated with Dr. Drew Weissman of the University of Pennsylvania, her research hit a dead end, who was interested in developing mRNA HIV vaccines. The two found that the modified mRNA can produce protein without causing adverse side effects. They first published their findings in 2005.
The company then began to recognize the potential of mRNA vaccine technology. Moderna was established in 2010 with the sole purpose of producing mRNA vaccines. The company obtained its own COVID vaccine authorization shortly after Pfizer.
Is the mRNA vaccine safe?
More than 175 million U.S. citizens are now vaccinated against COVID — the vast majority of them are mRNA types. The COVID mRNA vaccine has undergone the same rigorous safety tests as all vaccines Food and Drug Administration Consider them safe for emergency use or approval, according to CDC.
Dr. Michel Goldman, Editor-in-Chief Frontiers of Medicine The journal and Professor of Immunology at the Free University of Brussels in Belgium pointed out that the development of this technology over the years has proved that mRNA vaccines are safe, including human trials of mRNA technology to treat cancer since 2011.
He told the European Commission horizon Magazine: “If there is a problem with this technology, we must have seen it a long time ago.”
Goldman Sachs says mRNA vaccines can Change people’s DNA-A concern about vaccines-is “completely wrong” because the mRNA will never reach the nucleus where the DNA is stored.
Any COVID vaccine, including mRNA vaccines, will not cause a person to infect or develop the disease.
Vaccine trials are large-scale clinical trials that the federal government requires vaccine manufacturers to conduct to prove that their products are safe, which further proves that mRNA injections are safe.
Generally speaking, most vaccines Side effects appear In the first two months of a person’s vaccination, this means that most problems will appear in the trial.
Pfizer’s third phase trial alone involves approximately 40,000 people and will begin in July 2020. Pfizer said it found no “specific safety issues” and the most common reactions were injection site reactions, fatigue, headaches and muscle pain.
Even after approval, the CDC and FDA will continue to monitor vaccine safety, including the use of the so-called Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS).
According to the CDC, the mRNA COVID vaccine is associated with rare types of heart inflammation (called myocarditis and pericarditis) in male adolescents and young adults. Most patients recover quickly.
On the other hand, COVID has caused 4.55 million deaths, including children and adults. CDC recommends that eligible people get vaccinated as soon as possible.
Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty
