Yes to this. We should be able to keep the talk to just the facts based on science and medical science. No reason to drag in the politics of it all. Science never lies (it might just not return the results you were hypothesizing they would be) if you follow the scientific method. Science rules!
1 Like
And THAT’s why I’m a scientologist!
1 Like
I’m halfway through Moderna (second shot is 5/18… can’t come soon enough). I hate getting shots and took my wife with me (she’d gotten hers weeks before thanks to having a job in a different state, which if you’re not from New England sounds crazy, but it’s uh 10 minutes south of us) and it ended up being fine. Despite my loathing of shots I get the flu vaccine every year; I teach at a residential college and anything contagious spreads like wildfire, so we vaccine up every year.
I’m also a chemist and so I poked around reading the scientific literature on mRNA vaccine progress over the last two decades or so. This vaccine is pretty cool, actually! And I’m glad to be part of the process that helps normalize this kind of vaccine method, because it seems like it has lots of potential.
2 Likes
Yeah, I read up on a little of the Moderna vaccine as well and it’s pretty cool in how it works. I’m a techie but you should see my shelf of science related books. If I went back to school, I’d definitely study in some science field or some type.
2 Likes
In layman’s terms, @ein, can you explain the benefits of the mRNA vaccine development method, when compared to the old school vaccine method? I do know the old way was using the actual virus, and the new way is a synthesised version (I think).
Sure (at least, I can try… I’m a regular old chemist and not a biochemist)! The mRNA vaccines don’t send a deactivated/attenuated/passivated virus into your body like traditional vaccines (the traditional method is what the J&J vaccine does, and what the flu vaccine every year does). Instead, it sends in a recipe (mRNA–messenger RNA, the code by which your cells build proteins), or a set of instructions, to your cells to build a series of proteins that turn your cells into look-a-likes of the virus. Your immune system then uses those “hey, these didn’t look like that before” cells to produce T-cells.
The end result of both vaccines is an immune system with T-cells that recognize the virus.
The power of the mRNA method is that it’s fast and flexible. Which is to say that producing a vaccine the old way requires a lot of work to get, and then produce lots of, deactivated virus. The mRNA method requires finding a way to write the recipe. Because we have techniques to sequence and synthesize DNA and RNA from their individual units, this is something we can do fast. It’s not a surprise to me that the mRNA vaccines were the first out of the gate. And, this method relies on something your body already does, converting mRNA instructions into proteins–we’re just telling it to build a new protein.
The problem with these vaccines is that mRNA is fragile. It will die (break apart) in your body if it can’t get into your cells. So, the real work is in designing the shell that allows that transition. And that’s the lipid (fat) layer that surrounds the mRNA in the vaccine, and is also the part that probably causes the side effects.
EDIT: also, because we can redesign the recipe quickly, responding to variants is likely to be easier with the mRNA method. And, you can use it to attack things other than viruses. This method can probably hit cancers too (they’re working on that with some success).
3 Likes
Then you’ve got Moderna who has never had a commercially distributed drug in their 11 year history and now they get a pass to fast-track something that hasn’t been properly put through the normal testing process. What could go wrong.
1 Like
No no no and hell no would I ever put that in my body. I don’t believe the media lies anymore. I’ve come to a new understanding.
…and don’t say “do your research” because YOU ARE the research 
4 Likes
mRNA is already in your body! You wouldn’t be alive without it.
5 Likes
The #1 question being asked, “do you trust Covid or the government more?”. I don’t trust the government myself but Covid is a clear cut villian.
3 Likes
And who said anything about the media? What @ein stated is based on science… Let’s leave politics and the media out of this. We can have big boy conversations without including all the conspiracies…
1 Like
This made me snort some coffee out when I read this response… 
1 Like
If you read the ingredients of the Moderna vaccine, the most active ingredient is mRNA which is already found in your body. The rest of the ingredients assist in the process. Honestly, some “ingredients” you find on your box of processed foods at the grocery store seems like they’d be worse for you than these ingredients of a vaccine that is proving to prevent one from getting COVID.
2 Likes
You guys make it sound like it’s all so natural and easy. This is a man-made mRNA and it has instructions that it’s communicating to our bodies.
3 Likes
And the other vaccines aren’t really vaccines? They just help control the symptoms? Straight from the horse’s mouth.
Is everything you eat only grows directly from the ground or animals? Next time you go grocery shopping, look at all the ingredients on the box of foods you buy, most of it is all man made, made in a lab…
I support vaccination. Look at the countries who are doing so well in containing Covid-19.They tend to practice social distancing, face masks, and encourage their citizens to get vaccinated .They’re usually not to far right or left politically ,but have a unified mindset. Singapore also does a good job at tracing Covid-19 victims to self-quarantine so they wouldn’t spread it to other people.
3 Likes
I only eat apples and oranges.
1 Like
Organic only? All those pesticides… yummy!
At least all of this stuff is FDA approved. 