Over the last several days, the safety and efficacy of messenger RNA, or mRNA, vaccines have come under intense scrutiny.
Infectious disease experts told ABC News that mRNA and mRNA vaccines have been studied for decades, the vaccines are safe and effective, and that the shots were instrumental in saving lives during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“So, I think it’s unfortunate that anti-vaccine activists target mRNA vaccines like they do, but it is a good technology.” What is mRNA?
While most vaccines use a weakened or inactivated virus to stimulate an immune response, mRNA vaccines teach the body how to make proteins that can trigger an immune response and fight off an infection.
Chin-Hong said that during the large-scale clinical trials for COVID-19 mRNA vaccines, in 2020, more than 70,000 people were involved in the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna trials combined.
Messenger RNA, or mRNA, vaccines have been the subject of intense scrutiny in recent days regarding their safety and effectiveness.
Tuesday, the U.S. S. . The Food and Drug Administration declared its intention to restrict future COVID-19 vaccinations, including two mRNA vaccines, to people 65 years of age or older or those with high-risk illnesses. For the agency to approve the vaccinations for younger age groups, more scientific testing will be necessary.
Additionally, last month, the agency wrote to Moderna and Pfizer requesting that they broaden the warning labels on their mRNA COVID-19 vaccines to include more individuals who might be affected by the potential side effect of heart inflammation.
According to experts in infectious diseases who spoke to ABC News, mRNA and mRNA vaccines have been researched for many years, are safe and effective, and helped save lives during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The bottom line is that, based on estimates from the Yale School of Public Health, mRNA vaccines for COVID saved 3 to 2 million lives,” Dr. Peter Hotez, a pediatrician and molecular virologist at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, told ABC News.
“There would have been four and a half million Americans who died as a result of COVID, rather than one and a half million,” he continued. That anti-vaccine activists specifically target mRNA vaccines is regrettable, in my opinion, but the technology is sound. “.”.
mRNA: What is it?
Two teams of French and American molecular biologists independently discovered mRNA in 1961.
Doctor. Innovations in mRNA vaccine development started in the early 2000s and ultimately resulted in the creation of COVID-19 vaccines in 2020, according to Peter Chin-Hong, a professor of medicine and infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco.
mRNA vaccines teach the body to produce proteins that can activate the immune system and fend off an infection, whereas most vaccines use a weakened or inactivated virus to do so.
“The way it functions is that it doesn’t even enter the cell’s nucleus.”. It basically gives the cell instructions on how to produce proteins by entering the cytoplasm, which is the watery material outside the nucleus, Chin-Hong told ABC News. Most significantly, however, it dies and self-destructs in matter within a maximum of days. “”.
“So, mRNA disappears, but the most crucial products—proteins and antibodies—remain, and that’s why we get protection,” he added. “”.
Chin-Hong also addressed another piece of circulating misinformation that suggested mRNA vaccines could change the nucleus’ DNA.
“Our cells are unable to convert mRNA to DNA because the mRNA does not reach the nucleus, where the DNA is located,” he continued.
How can we be sure it’s safe?
According to Chin-Hong, the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna trials combined enrolled over 70,000 participants in 2020 as part of the extensive clinical trials for COVID-19 mRNA vaccines.
Furthermore, 37,000 participants participated in Moderna’s RSV vaccine clinical trials, according to Chin-Hong.
Researchers found that the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine had short-term efficacy rates of over 90% and that its side effects, such as fever, arm pain, and injection site swelling, were similar to those of conventional, non-RNA vaccines.
According to other research, the safety of booster shots was comparable to that of primary vaccination.
“These databases are used to track reports of people’s experiences using vaccines, not just in this country but in many other countries as well,” Chin-Hing stated. Numerous studies conducted since 2020 have demonstrated that there is no effect on fertility, stroke, or any other issue that people may be concerned about. “.”.
No vaccine technology, including mRNA technology, is flawless, according to Hotez, but it does have some benefits, like the ability to be developed more rapidly than conventional vaccines, which enables them to be distributed more quickly.
He opposes the FDA’s decision to restrict future COVID-19 vaccinations because the virus can cause long-term effects like delayed cardiovascular disease and prolonged COVID.
He stated, “I believe that many younger adults, or those under 65, are worried enough about long-term COVID or downstream heart disease to want to have to be able to get the mRNA vaccine.”.
Myocarditis, what about it?
How myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart muscle, develops following the COVID-19 vaccination has been a topic of debate.
Arrhythmias are fast or irregular heartbeats that can be brought on by myocarditis. Additionally, it can lead to cardiomyopathy, a weakening of the heart muscle that impairs the heart’s capacity to pump blood efficiently.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have reported that rare cases of myocarditis and pericarditis, which are inflammations of the sac that houses the heart, have been reported following COVID vaccination.
Rarely, they have happened in young adult males, usually between the ages of 18 and 29, seven days after the second dose of an mRNA COVID vaccine, according to the agency.
The FDA used “new safety information”—data from one of its safety surveillance systems and a study released in October that tracked individuals who experienced myocarditis associated with COVID vaccines—when requesting that the vaccine manufacturers broaden their warning labels.
“The risk of myocarditis is significantly higher after COVID-19 than it is after vaccination,” Chin-Hong said, adding that the risk of getting COVID itself is also higher.
In general, the risk of COVID is significantly higher. For instance, there are 22 to 31 cases per million [among] people aged 18 to 29,” he said. When these vaccines are used frequently in that population, the risk of myocarditis is 1,500 per million. Compared to 1,500 per million, you’re talking about 22 to 31 per million. “.”.
Contributing to this report was Youri Benadjaoud of ABC News.
