Clarification of gene therapy in this context

Posted on: December 3, 2020 at 10:24:48 CT

"1) Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are technically NOT vaccines...they are gene therapy, a trojan horse technology to genetically modify our immune system to produce a specific type of antibody which hopefully will reduce the symptoms associated with COVID-19. A true vaccine is the injection of a weakened or inactivated version of an actual virus to actually give you a mild (or even asymptomatic) infection. By defining itself as a vaccine ("biologic"), the manufacturers cannot be held liable for any harm resulting from the vaccine."

Just a clarification on what "gene therapy" means here, because you've got some basic facts incorrect. While genetic engineering (CRISPR) is a form of gene therapy and does, in fact, modify the DNA of a cell... the COVID vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer do not do this at all. What they do is provide messenger RNA* from SARS-CoV-2 virus into cells that then produce a spike protein (antibody) against the virus. No genetic modification happens at all to the human host cells and virus cannot be spread to other cells. So your characterization that the vaccine genetically modifies our immune system is patently false and a misunderstanding of the basic science--not your fault, obviously, because most people don't have a deep understanding of vaccine development or genome biology.


*messenger RNA (mRNA) is the product of transcription of DNA in a cell... when cells replicate, DNA helices uncoil and the two strands separate. When this happens, every gene in each side of the DNA is then transcribed into an mRNA molecule that itself can be translated into an amino-acid (protein). In the case of the COVID vaccines, the DNA for COVID doesn't exist in the genome of the human host, so mRNA is introduced to then be translated into the spike proteins that function as antibodies against SARS-CoV-2.

This type of vaccine has been in development for a decade and is built upon a huge swatch of peer-reviewed scientific data. It's just the newest approach for vaccine development and the one that was used to develop these vaccines because it is efficient. It is quite remarkable the mRNA-based vaccine was able to be developed so quickly after the SARS-CoV-2 genome was mapped... but it's hardly accurate to say that they spent very little time on this. The methodology and approaches have been vetted for a long time now. Expect to see more vaccines like this in the future as our attention and NIH funding targets "precision medicine" initiatives in abundance.

Hope this is helpful to your understanding.

Edited by paleojas at 10:26:14 on 12/03/20