Please note that the following is meant for anti-vaxx morons, particularly Gab retards, and so the explanations are dumbed down and simplified. For example, I omit various exceptions to the Central Dogma, so it is not necessary for critics to “call out” my STEM credentials by pointing out my “ignorance.” In order to explain things to retards, it is necessary to restrict the material to the bare essentials.
There are three major types of vaccinations - live (attenuated) viruses (or other microbes), killed viruses (or other microbes), or toxins or other antigens associated with the disease-causing microbes. The DNA and mRNA covid vaccines are of the third type. The Chinese covid vaccine, or at least one of them, is of the second type. The MMR vaccine is of the first type.
Many vaccines confer sterilizing immunity - they protect the person from infection; other vaccines, like the covid vaccines, merely confer functional immunity, they prevent illness or severe illness, not necessarily preventing infection (but they may reduce the rate of infection).
Let us consider the Central Dogma (simplified): DNA to RNA to protein. Genetic information is encoded in the DNA (in the cell nucleus). The messenger RNA (mRNA) is described from the DNA, in the cell nucleus, undergoes processing, and is transported to the cytoplasm, where it is translated into proteins (functional material of cell) and is subsequently degraded. Very well.
So, what is going on with the mRNA vaccines? Instead of injecting the covid proteln antigen, mRNA coding for that protein is instead injected. The mRNA enters the cells, in the cytoplasm (not the nucleus, where the DNA [genome] is), is translated into the covid protein (which stimulates the immune response), and then the mRNA is subsequently degraded. That’s it. Not “altering the genome” and no “gene therapy” and no “toxins” or any other of the paranoid ideation about the vaccines. In the Central Dogma sequence, it is one step removed from injecting the final product (protein antigen); hence, the body’s cells are given the instructions to make the antigen, which they do. In the DNA vector vaccine, the actual DNA (via a viral vector) enters the cell nucleus, first has to be transcribed into the relevant mRNA, which then goes to the cytoplasm for translation (thus, one further step back in the Central Dogma compared to the mRNA vaccine, and two steps back from the protein antigen).
Advantages of the mRNA vaccine is that it is easier to mass produce than the actual protein antigen, and by allowing the body to make the antigen itself, significant amounts are produced to stimulate a good immune response. Since the mRNA stays in the cytoplasm, there are no worries about what’s going on in the nucleus (where the genes are). The negative of the mRNA vaccine is that mRNA, particularly in the absence of any artificial modifications, is inherently very unstable, hence the requirement for very low storage temperatures. On the other hand, the relatively short half-life of mRNA helps alleviate worries about it hanging around too long, making too much antigen.
DNA is much more stable, so it is easier to handle and doesn’t require the same very low temperatures, but it has to get into the nucleus to do its job, which can raise theoretical concerns about integration into the genome, which would be very rare but (again, theoretically) not absolutely impossible (unless certain modifications are used to prevent that; I do not know the details of those vaccines).
In any case, in the USA, mostly the mRNA vaccines are used.
Posted by Thorn on Fri, 17 Sep 2021 12:10 | #
http://eginotes.blogspot.com/2021/09/a-brief-vaccine-primer.html