One of our biggest human flaws is our submissive tendency to follow opinions over facts. As Ripon High School Students studying the cold, hard chemistry of COVID - 19, we're here to change that
Research is the foundation of our information on Covid-19, that's why we have chosen to do research on the things that concern our family friends, and community. We may all have different opinions, but the facts help guide the truth. Thank you to all of the people that submitted questions to help guide our research! Your response has helped us to create authentic research to provide useful information to the people in our community. We hope that you find this information helpful, and continue to use the facts of our situation to help guide your decisions in the future. Stay safe!
The mRNA vaccine is unlike other vaccines that we’ve received in the past. Rather that using dead or weakened viruses, the mRNA vaccines use spike protein genetic information. The “crown” of spikes on the Sars-CoV2 virus contain the genetic information that allows for the infection of our cells. Scientists have found a way to copy only the information within that single spike and replicate it over and over again allowing for synthesization and quick production rates. The mRNA is then encased in a lipid membrane that when exposed to our own cell membranes, absorbs the mRNA into the cytoplasm of the cell, not the nucleus (where our DNA is). This means the mRNA does NOT affect our own genetic identity, but just codes our bodies to recognize the Covid-19 virus. To summarize it briefly, the mRNA gives instructions to your cell to build an immune response to Covid-19 and is not a weakened or dead virus, but a small genetic snippet of one.
No aborted fetuses were used for testing on any of the vaccines and neither Pfizer nor the Moderna vaccine use fetal cells in production. The Johnson&Johnson vaccine (a DNA vaccine) does however use fetal cells (specifically the PerC6 cell) in the production of their vaccine because the fetal cells are used as a home where the DNA grows before it’s moved into a carrier neutralized virus for transport. Confusion on this topic might come from the fact that fetal cells are synthesized, replicated copies of retinal cells taken from aborted fetuses in the Netherlands in 1973 and then again in 1985. Since then, the cells have replicated and been artificially copied to be used in a variety of scientific situations. In the case of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccine, fetal cells HEK293 were used to observe how the vaccine would affect living cells, how those with the vaccine would replicate, and because they’re easily manipulated. No aborted fetuses were tested on ever in any stages of the vaccines production, nor are fetal cells within the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine. The fetuses where the original embryonic cells originated from were not aborted for this purpose.
Unfortunately we don’t know anything for sure. The vaccine has only been in use for a short period of time, and we haven’t been able to observe its effectiveness over long periods of time. We can make educated assumptions about the frequency of vaccine distribution, but nothing is set in stone. It’s unlikely that we’ll need one every year, but researchers believe a booster shot is a likely possibility. Influenza is a different type of virus than Covid-19 is. They’re in two completely different families. The influenza virus consists of 14,000 different base pairs all varying between 8 different lengths. To encourage the power of this virus, it replicates incredibly fast, allowing for an abundance of mutations. The coronavirus family on the other hand is a single body virus, so any mutations would be caused by replication errors and they would occur less frequently as they do in the influenza family. According to Dr. Andrew Pavia, an Infectious Disease Specialist at University of Utah Health, “It looks like the vaccines produce a longer immune response than natural infection, so it may last longer than a year, but it’s unlikely to be permanent the way two doses of measles vaccine is. So at some point, it’s likely that we will need to boost people, but we don’t know how frequently that will need to be.”
It is possible that someone who is fully vaccinated could pass on the virus to other individuals. This could be possible if the virus is residing in the mucus of the nose and/mouth (an area where antibodies don’t actively fight off foreign bodies) and the person coughed, passing on the virus within our respiratory droplets. This all has to do with your first line of immune response, the mucosal membrane. This membrane is the first line of defense against intruders, like pathogens, entering your body. Mucosal surfaces are very vulnerable to viruses because they take part in gas exchange, food absorption, sensory activities and reproduction. Viruses can get caught in these areas of your body and are released from your body in the form of discharge (ex. mucus). If this line of defense is able to catch it all, the pathogen does not get to your internal immune system. It is thought that even if you do not have the virus (or are vaccinated) you could still infect others through the transfer of the discharge to another person. This possibility is very unlikely considering how much of the virus is necessary for you to contract the virus, however it is still a possibility we should be aware of.
In addition to this information, it has just been released by the CDC that people who have been vaccinated can gather in small groups indoors without masks. The reason we still have to wear masks in the general public is for the reasons stated above, and because it is not yet proven if you can still contract and spread the virus if you have been vaccinated.
You might then wonder why Covid tests swab the mucosal membranes if the membranes can contain the virus and the body has not contracted it. The answer to this is that if you have some virus in your mucosal membrane but have not contracted it, you will have a very very small amount of the virus in you, not enough to get a positive test. If you have contracted it, the virus will continue to reproduce, and secrete in the form of mucus and other discharge. This means that your discharge will be more concentrated with the virus and you will therefore test positive.
The vaccine was released so quickly for a variety of different reasons. Obviously the general population was frantic to produce something quickly in order to save lives, so all hands were on deck. Along with that, governments were spending billions of dollars on research and manufacturing, making production faster and more efficient. The main reason we were able to come up with the vaccine for Covid-19 was because we had access to an abundance of resources. Researchers have been studying mRNA style vaccines since the 1990s and the coronavirus family since the 1970s. In fact the Sars virus in 2002 and the MERS virus in the middle east during 2012 were both illnesses derived from coronavirus family and we used a lot of knowledge from those situations while facing our recent issues. Rather than starting from scratch as we have with past vaccines, we jumped right in with the solution. Besides decades of research, countries weren't working alone. Collaborative efforts all across the world allowed scientist to discover the genetic information required to make the mRNA sequence used to make Covid-19 10 days after the first reported infection.
The vaccine didn't skip any stages in it's approval. This is a common misconception along with the idea that the vaccine was rushed through testing phases and isn't safe. This is untrue. The most common symptoms of the Covid-19 vaccine was headache, fatigue, and injection site soreness. No deaths nor medical conditions have resulted from either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine. During production, the vaccine did COMBINE stage 2&3 which consisted on testing the drug on individuals with medical conditions (obesity, diabetes, etc.) and on a massive population, respectively.