mRNA Vaccines: Questions & Misconceptions

In this video, I want to answer your questions  about the mRNA vaccines for SARS-CoV-2 or COVID19.

Once again, I've listed all  my sources in the description,

so please check them out if you have doubts.

Question 1: Is this video sponsored  by the pharmaceutical industry?

No, it wasn't sponsored by anyone. In fact,

so far, none of the Simply Explained videos  have been sponsored. This one is no exception.

If you want to help and keep this channel  independent, consider becoming a member.

Question 2: Why is a vaccine necessary?

As this viewer points out, our  immune system is quite capable.

A vaccine is merely a helping  hand, strengthening our immune

system so that fewer people need to  be hospitalized and fewer people die.

According to John Hopkins University,

COVID19 has an observed case-fatality  rate between 0,5% and 10%.

Let's take 2% as the average and assume  that everyone on Earth got infected (7,7

billion people). We would be  looking at 154 million deaths.

We can largely prevent these huge  losses by developing vaccines.

So it makes a lot of sense to  immunize as many people as we can.

Question 3: Will the vaccine  prevent the virus from spreading?

That's not clear at the moment. After vaccination,

your body will start making a specific type of  antibody that will circulate in your bloodstream.

However, the coronavirus enters  our body mostly through our nose,

and here we have different types of  antibodies. It's currently not known

how effective the vaccine's antibodies will be  in this region. That means you won't get sick,

but you could still have virus particles  in your nose, ready to spread to others.

That's also why vaccinated people can still test  positive for the virus while not getting sick.

But there is hope. One study exposed  vaccinated primates to the virus and

observed that they were able to clear the  infection from their airways in a shorter time

than others. Indicating the vaccine  reduced how long they were infectious.

Time will tell if the same holds up for humans.

Question 4: How is the efficacy  of a vaccine determined? (The 95%)

The efficacy expresses the reduction of infections  between vaccinated people and unvaccinated people.

Let's take a real phase 3 study as  an example. In this case, there were

36,523 participants, half of which got  the vaccine, the other half got a placebo.

Participants were closely monitored for 120  days while keeping track of COVID19 infections.

In the group that received the vaccine, 8 people

eventually got COVID19. In the placebo  group, there were a total of 162 cases.

The efficacy is then calculated by taking  the difference between these groups and

dividing them by the number of cases in the  unvaccinated group. This gives us a 95% efficacy.

This approach has been used many  times before and is not new.

Question 5: mRNA vaccines have never been  approved before. They are unsafe and rushed.

This is indeed the first time  that mRNA vaccines are approved.

But that's not because they  were rushed or corners were cut.

First up: mRNA technology isn't new. It's been  researched and worked for more than 2 decades.

It's only now that the technology has  matured enough for wide-spread use.

Secondly, we already studied other coronaviruses,

such as SARS, in great detail. These have similar  spikes, so we could build upon this knowledge.

Thirdly, there was a lot of money available for  research and production. The US alone invested

over 10 billion dollars into developing vaccines  (Operation Warp Speed). This meant that companies

could conduct clinical trials in parallel while  also ramping up manufacturing. Here's how vaccines

are traditionally developed, notice how it's  very sequential, one step at a time. And this is

how the COVID19 vaccines were developed. You can  see that many steps were conducted in parallel,

massively speeding up the process. Not skipping  steps, but doing them at the same time.

And finally, regulatory  agencies such as the FDA and EMA

gave priority to all studies related  to COVID19. Companies were allowed to

periodically submit parts of their research  for approval. This shortens the review times.

So, in summary: The vaccines were not  rushed. They've been massively accelerated.

Question 6: Why can't we use traditional  vaccine technologies instead of mRNA?

We can, and we do. There are many types of  vaccines, and mRNA is just one of them. An

older and more commonly used technique is to use  weakened viruses to boost your immune system.

I won't go too much into details since this  video focuses primarily on mRNA. But here's

a handy overview of the types of vaccines and  which company is working on them for COVID19.

Question 7: Can the mRNA in  the vaccine alter my DNA?

No. Our DNA is contained in  the nucleus of our cells.

While mRNA does enter our cells,  it cannot enter the cell nucleus.

mRNA is naturally made by our body. When a cell  needs a particular protein, the cell nucleus will

make a string of mRNA containing instructions and  give it to the rest of the cell for execution.

So all we're doing with the vaccine, is  temporarily give our cells other instructions.

Side fact: viruses that do "become a part of us"

are called retroviruses. The  most commonly known one is HIV.

Question 8: What are the  adjuvants? And are those dangerous?

No, they aren't dangerous. Adjuvants are  used in almost all vaccines for the last 70

years. They signal your immune system to  come to check out what is happing near

the place where you got injected with the vaccine.

That way, the immune system will more  quickly notice the odd spikes in your body,

resulting in a more robust immune  response with more antibodies.

Question 9: Why do some people  get sick from the vaccine?

It's not uncommon for vaccines  to have some side-effects,

and the ones for the coronavirus are no different.  In this phase 3 study, side-effects were common

but mild. This included pain at the injection  site, fever, tiredness, chills, and headaches.

It also found that participants had more  side-effects from the second dose than the

first dose and that people older than 55 reported  fewer side-effects than younger participants.

In summary: the mRNA vaccines  are generally well tolerated.

In most cases, having some mild side-effects is  better than actually having to fight off COVID19.

Question 10: The coronavirus is mutating. Will  the vaccine protect me from those mutations?

We're talking about the UK  and South-Africa mutations,

which allow the virus to spread more rapidly.

Early studies indicate that the mRNA  vaccines might be just as effective

against the UK mutation. In this study,  researchers took antibodies from people

that had received the 2 doses of their  vaccine and exposed them to the mutation.

They found no reduction in neutralization  activity. In other words: the mutated virus

did not develop a resistance against the  antibodies produced by the vaccine shot.

The South-African mutation is a different story.  That same study found a significant reduction in

neutralization activity, but they noted that the  vaccine would still be effective. Some companies

are already working on tweaked versions of  their vaccines to offer full protection.

However, we do have to be cautious  with this data. It's an early study so

nothing conclusive just yet.

So that was it for this video. All of  these answers are published on my website,

along with the sources and references that  I've used. The link is in the description.

Thanks for watching. Consider  subscribing and stay healthy!