As I See It – 19th May 2021

When we first knew there would be COVID-19 vaccines, I was sure I wanted to get vaccinated.

I was also sure, however, that I didn’t want to be first in line; mine was a definite wait-and-see attitude.  My hesitation, like yours perhaps, resulted from concerns that the vaccines are unproven, that they could lead to more serious conditions, that they may not be really effective, or that there may be dangerous, long term side effects.

The revolutionary way the new vaccines work, and the clinical trial results, changed my mind.  To understand why, I offer a little background on viruses, immunity, and vaccines.

SARS-CoV-2 (COVID19) is a potentially deadly version of the so-called common cold.  That is, the common cold may be caused by over 200 different viruses, about four strains of which are a type called coronavirus; they account for about 20% of colds.  These have been so mild, that over the years there was little research into them until the SARS epidemic in 2003, and MERS in 2012.

Under normal conditions, your body has trillions of cells we can’t experience directly.  Many of those are essential to your healthy daily living, but there are some nasty actors as well.  Where the cold is concerned the bad actors are viruses.

Your cells are alive in that they breathe, eat, reproduce and die.  A virus can’t do any of that on its own.  A coronavirus is a tiny particle (one-millionth of an inch long) that consists simply of a single strand of genetic material, RNA in this case.

So what’s happening in your body?

The coronavirus has spikes that make it look like the sun’s corona, bind to specific receptors on your healthy cells, and then penetrate them.  Because viruses can’t grow and reproduce, they need a host cell in which to “live” and make more viruses.

The virus attaches to your cell, and releases its RNA into the cell.  Its RNA takes over your normal cell’s life machinery, and instructs it to make more viruses that leak out of your cell or kill it, and move on to new host cells.

When a virus gets into your body, your immune system goes into overdrive, developing a way to neutralize or kill the invader.  It goes through complex trialand- error gyrations until it comes up with a Y-shaped protein called an antibody that is specific to a particular invader.

It’s good at this, but developing those antibodies takes time, and the invader often has time to make you sick.

We speak as though the virus causes your symptoms, but the cold symptoms are caused mainly by your immune system’s response to the virus.

When nasal cells are infected, they trigger a whole host of antiviral activity, including inflammation and mucus gland secretion as well as activating your sneeze and cough reflexes; these are your cold symptoms.   SARS-CoV-2 attacks primarily lung cells, and it’s their presence that starts the protective measures that can lead to pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome.

The one job of a vaccine is to get your immune system started making antibodies while there is no danger from the real virus.

Since the first smallpox vaccine was developed by Edward Jenner in 1796, there have been a myriad of conditions alleviated by vaccines.

For all of that time, the primary method of vaccination has been to introduce into your body an attenuated or dead amount of the real virus.  Such vaccines have virtually eliminated a wide variety of diseases worldwide, including polio, smallpox, tetanus and more.

That said, there have been some failures that caused more grief than benefit, and we have long needed a truly safe alternative.

The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are 95% effective, and represent a revolutionary advance in vaccination technology.  They use no virus at all, neither dead nor attenuated.   They use what’s called messenger RNA (mRNA).

To develop the SARS-CoV-2 mRNA, researchers discovered the four proteins that are found in the SARS-CoV-2 spikes.  They then encoded those proteins into mRNA which, when injected, makes it appear to your immune system that SARS-CoV-2 has invaded.  Your immune system begins the antibody development process in complete safety.

Some people experience unpleasant symptoms following the first or second shot.  This is simply your immune system responding to the readiness instructions delivered by the vaccine.

Further, because these vaccines, especially the Pfizer, need to be kept very cold until they are used, they disappear from your system almost as soon as they deliver their mRNA.  This makes long-term side effects from the vaccine unlikely.

These observations were enough to convince me of the safety and effectiveness of the vaccines.  I hope you’ll consider getting yourself to a vaccination site soon.

As a world, to finally get COVID-19 under control, we really need you to do this.