Why Refusing the New COVID RNA Vaccine Makes NO Sense

 

Why Concerns about The New RNA vaccines make no sense

 I have heard from some patients that they have decided not to get the COVID vaccine. They give many reasons. These include concern that the vaccine is too new, and we do not know about side effects. Also about possible long term complications. One patient was worried about putting something into his body.

There are those who don’t believe the disease exists. If seeing sick people with COVID-19, and interviews with deniers on their death bed “I thought it wasn’t real!”, as well as an excess of 520,000 deaths over average in 2020 in the United States does not convince them, I think I have some swamp land to sell. Those naïve people can stop reading and go back to their homes.

 Anti-vaxxers have many reasons not to get vaccines, few or none of which have any scientific basis. Some believe that the adjuvants added to may vaccines (often organic aluminum) can cause damage. Again there is no proof of this, but it is understandable. The belief that vaccines can cause autism has been disproven many times over. But let’s not talk about older vaccines.

 First you need to undertand how a virus infection works. A virus is simply genetic material surrounded by a fatty membrane (also called a lipid coat). When a virus infects you, its lipid membrane combines with your individual cell mabrane and the genetic material (RNA or DNA) gets injected into your cell. Then your cell uses the RNA to create new proteins and more RNA which become new viral particles. And it keeps doing this until it explodes releasing all the infectious particles.

To help the virus enter the cell the lipid coat has proteins, or spikes, on its surface, that guide it to the cells it wants to infect.

 You get sick because your body gets overwhelmed by the virus particles that your own body made, and there is widespread destruction of tissue (with COVID the lungs) as cells explode releasing virus.

 Our bodies have an amazing way of defending itself against infection. It has a “random” method of producing antibodies which are programmed to match the spikes on the virus. These antibodies attach to the virus and then attract killer white blood cells to destroy the virus. Unfortunately it can take 2-6 weeks for our bodies to adapt and produce sufficient permanent antibodies to make us immune. The body can program some immediate antibodies as well, that can clear up the initial infection; this can  take 2-12 days. In some people the virus can overwhelm this initial defense.

 These “permanent” antibodies are also called neutralizing antibodies. Are these really permanent? We really don’t know, but based on every other virus these should last many years. (Flu virus changes totally every year so previous year’s vaccine may not work).

 The best way for medicine to prevent infection would be to induce production of these neutralizing antibodies before we get infected. Before MRNA vaccines scientists would try to make the virus pass through chicken egg cells so it would change and not be as dangerous, but still could produce an immune response. Or inject us with the spike protein attached to an adjuvant, like aluminum, to induce a larger response.

 Imagine if there was a COVID type virus that caused your cells to make only spike protein and not new viruses. And didn’t kill the cell. The new mRNA vaccines are such a breakthrough!

 The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are almost like viruses themselves – but not infections. Scientists have created a lipid coated “virus” that only contains genetic material to induce your cells to produce spike proteins. These proteins are released alone so the cell does not explode. Then the body, in about 2 weeks, makes neutralizing antibodies. The vaccine does not contain any adjuvants or other artificial ingredients.

 So we have a choice – get infected with the virus – with the possibility of dying, or becoming a long-hauler with chronic heart or brain issues. Or if you recover then you have neutralizing antibodies that protect you against future infections. Of course the alternative is to “catch” a viral infection that only produces the spike proteins and makes your body make the exact same neutralizing antibodies you would get if you had the real infection. That, naturally, is the new mRNA vaccine.

 This new vaccine technology, first developed in 2008, is a game changer in vaccines. No longer do we have to try and inactivate the potentially deadly virus; we can create our own virus like particle that only contains enough genetic material to cause antibodies to be made.

 To me the choice seems quite easy. Get a potentially fatal or disabling disease and if you survive make some neutralizing antibodies. Or take a vaccine which is essentially a modifies virus, which does not make you sick but makes you produce the exact same antibodies (actually in larger amounts).

 Can anyone tell me why someone would refuse the vaccine? Do they prefer to get the disease? Or are they just being stubborn, knowing they are wrong, but obstinately refusing to admit it.