I have a friend who is anti mRNA vaccines as they are so new.
Are they?
No. They are actually incredibly safe, much safer than the vaccines from last century. The big scandal from 1955, where an improperly killed polio vaccine gave polio to 40,000 kids, leaving 51 paralyzed and 5 dead, is literally impossible with mRNA vaccines.
As a doctor, I consider mRNA vaccines to be one of the most exciting developments in vaccine history. It has the potential to make vaccines something that a developer can encode, much like a programmer writing a computer program. The possible applications of this are insane.
Something tells me mRNA is irrelevant. It’s a common talking point among anti-vaxxers, and is typically nothing more than an excuse. It’s also a form of gish-galloping, where they pile a bunch of bullshit on you and make you defend it.
Ask them some follow-up questions like these. I suspect the trend will become clear.
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What are your thoughts on the more traditional non-mRNA covid vaccines, such as the ones from J&J or Novavax (or whatever you have in your area)?
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When was the last time you got any vaccine, including a flu shot?
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If you had the choice today, would you get the well-established vaccines such as polio or measles, mumps, rubella (MMR)?
Once you have these answers, you’ll know if they are truly concerned about mRNA being new or if it’s something else.
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No. It’s too late in the game for your friend to be that stupid. Maybe find smarter friends.
Your friend is an idiot. MRNA vaccines are not new. Scientists have been working on a vaccine since SARS, which is similar to COVID (aka SARS-CoV-2). One of the reasons why medication can take so long to reach the public is that it takes money, which likely come from grants, which take time and have limited amounts to go around. When the pandemic broke out, countries around the world threw money at these labs. Everything else pretty much stopped, so they didn’t have to wait for an understaffed and underfunded FDA to approve it.
Getting the vaccine is much better than slowly suffocating because the virus destroyed your lungs. Herd immunity only works when enough people have been vaccinated and clearly we haven’t reached that yet since people are still getting infected, reinfected and dying.
You’re correct on everything but the last part. Herd immunity doesn’t mean its erraticated. Just means the majority won’t get infected. Which is the case.
They are not really all that new. The research for mRNA vaccines began over 50 years ago.
mRNA vaccines are among the safest vaccines ever made. There is nothing in an mRNA vaccine that can make you sick. What they are is instructions for your immune system on how to recognize certain viruses when it sees them. You can literally email the mRNA sequence to a different lab and, provided they have the right equipment, they can make the vaccine without ever needing a sample of the virus.
The mild symptoms some people get is the immune system activating and building the viral antigens specified by the mRNA vaccine, but there is no danger of getting Covid-19 or any other disease from the Covid-19 vaccine.
The fear for some is because of how fast tracked the mrna vaccine was, but mrna research by any means is not new. The idea has been in the air for decades and saw very limited trials when the Ebola outbreak happened, but due to it not spreading, there was no need to mass create mrna vaccines at the time at a commercial/global scale.
They been around for some time. Sped up testing significantly during COVID but with COVID they have a massive data set to verify it’s safety. Likely factors more then most drugs. I am personally pretty confident in the usage of RMA proceedures.
Unless the friend has training as a microbiologist or something similar their belief is inconsequential. And even then they would be in the vast minority in their field (like a geologist that believes oil doesn’t come from the heat and compression of ancient organic matter).
A lot of people are afraid of new things they don’t understand. The hope is that people realize that the fear is irrational and listen to experts in the relevant field.
A lot of people are afraid of new things they don’t understand. The hope is that people realize that the fear is irrational and listen to experts in the relevant field.
That would be me, highly reluctant to try the new possibly risky thing until many other people have done it. But I DO realize my fear is (mostly) irrational, so after a bit I gather my courage and do the thing anyway. For covid mRNA vaccines, I skipped the first round, and watched the news carefully for word of people dropping dead. It didn’t happen, so I caught the second round of vaccines in my area about a month later. I was still afraid, but considered it my civic duty to reduce the spread to the greatest degree in my ability. And since then I’ve got every “booster” I was eligible for. As an old person, I’m eligible among the first, lol.
I’m not convinced there aren’t some under reported risks to the vaccine. But I still consider it my civic duty to help prevent the spread of something much riskier, covid.
@bernieecclestoned@sh.itjust.works @stinerman@midwest.social Every time I hear someone saying people are afraid of change, I always suspect they’re just butthurt because they get inordinate benefit from that change. People actually love change, and enthusiastically embrace it, when it’s a change for the better. Nobody is afraid to unwrap their birthday presents! People aren’t afraid of change; they’re afraid of marketing bullshitting them, of charlatans with yet another form of exploitation who are all whining in chorus about how much people fear change.
So… don’t worry about being reluctant to take risks, I say. It might be irrational, but it also might not be wrong. Try to do what’s best for you. If vaccines are less risky than covid, then you’ll fear them less than covid, assuming these vaccines even prevent covid in the first place. If I want to convince you to take a vaccine, it’s on me to give you the power to determine for yourself whether I’m full of shit. Just demonizing you as a redneck luddite and blaming you for making people sick isn’t going to accomplish anything.
Anyone remotely blaming me for making others sick does not know me. I took the covid vaccine the second time it came to my area, which was just a month after the first round and when it was still only being given to “high risk” people like me. I certainly don’t think it keeps you from catching it entirely, any more than the flu vaccine does. But I’m wholly convinced it reduces severity. And like flu vaccines, it appears to my non-scientific observations that, as covid evolves, the vaccines may not always “catch” each iteration of covid perfectly well. People I know are, again, getting sicker when they get covid. And yeah I absolutely believe in N95 masks worn properly; despite having a job where I’m in close face-to-face quarters with my customers I’ve not had covid (to my knowledge).
The fact that I don’t embrace change the first time it shows its face probably has more to do with being 70 years old. If what I’m doing now already works well, I’m in no hurry for change unless it’s helpful.
