Why are the new Covid-19 vaccines different from other vaccines?
Growing up, we’ve all have gotten vaccinations for different kinds of disease, all the way from Tetanus to Hepatitis B and, THE Covid-19 vaccine itself. To simply put it, all vaccines have the purpose of defending against infectious diseases, and no vaccine is 100% safe or effective. Each vaccine was invented in different ways, tested, and experimented very carefully before being put for usage. Here are the differences between the Covid-19 vaccine and the other vaccines. Please keep in mind that the process of making the Covid-19 vaccine was not made in a fortnight, and scientists were not starting from scratch either when they learned about SARS-CoV-2.
SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) is a member of the coronavirus family. According to researchers, there are hundreds of coronaviruses — including four that can cause the common cold. They as well include the coronaviruses that sparked the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) epidemic in 2002 and the emergence of MERS (Middle East respiratory syndrome) in 2012. Dr. Eric J. Yager, an associate professor of microbiology at Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences in Albany, NY, told MNT that scientists have been studying coronaviruses for over 50 years. This meant scientists had existing data on the structure, genome, and life cycle of this type of virus. From this data, comes the Covid vaccine.
Vaccines are safe and effective!
What makes them different is that the Covid vaccines utilize the mRNA from the coronavirus to produce antibodies to the virus, while other vaccines use dead or harmless viruses or select harmless portions of the virus. To make it short, mRNA is an important messenger, carrying the instructions for life from DNA to the rest of the cell. It is used to build protein in cells and the shape of the protein allows it to do many different things like speeding up reactions, spreading messages through an organism. By doing so, the body’s immune system can produce antibodies, specialized proteins that can dismantle a virus and rid the body of potential harm in a matter of minutes. This aims to create a harmless version of a part of the virus using mRNA. In the Covid-19 vaccine, the mRNA replicates the exact shape of the spike protein on the virus, but let’s have an in-depth about the virus’s composition first. A virus is built quite simple, essentially a small bit of genetic information that codes for the virus, surrounded by a protein shell known as a capsid, and coated in specialized spiked proteins that allow the virus to attach itself onto entering the cell.
The spike is very important for creating antibodies because the cell uses the genetic information from the virus to produce more virus, and some of the spike proteins move to the outer layer of the cell, known as the cell membrane. The proteins may be detected by a cell that can make antibodies, which can then protect the body against the virus. So essentially what happens is a small portion of mRNA is injected into your body, which enters into a cell and that cell makes the spikes found on the outside of a virus. These spikes can then be detected by a new cell that can make antibodies that can help eliminate viruses.
Getting your COVID vaccine will help end the pandemic faster!
The question is, does it work well? Is this new technology safe? One of the many worries about the vaccine is its safety. However, the vaccine has gone through rigorous testing and clinical trials, as well as FDA approval before it can be used. The laboratories that made these vaccines have also perfected the process of creating the vaccine, so the second that China published its findings of the coronavirus, they started working on making a vaccine, quickly creating a new version of the protein spike and checking its efficacy before starting trials. Even though this technology has not been put into use before, the first inklings of mRNA vaccines started over 30 years ago and many vaccines for other diseases have been created using mRNA.
The problem with these vaccines is that they turned out to be a little bit more incomprehensible than expected. Since scientists needed to figure out how to change the mRNA so that it didn’t harm the body, but also making sure it still has the same shape as a spike protein. Other reasons include that scientists needed to find ways so that the cell would pick up the mRNA and would make large quantities of this mRNA, but the final challenge was making sure that the mRNA would make it to the cell. By entering lipid nanoparticles, small capsules made from lipids, or fat, which were able to protect the RNA long enough so that it could reach the cell, works! So the answer to the question is YES it works very well!! Clinical trials show that two shots of the vaccine from Pfizer produce antibodies that are 95% effective against the coronavirus and severely reduce the risk of severe cases, hospitalizations, and death.
SOURCES:
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/how-did-we-develop-a-covid-19-vaccine-so-quickly
https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/why-are-mrna-vaccines-so-exciting-2020121021599
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/different-vaccines/mrna.html