RE: Tweet31 Mar 2021 13:45
Dr100 - Completely different technologies. Difficult to draw comparisons between mRNA and traditional (whole inactivated, attenuated and toxoid) vaccines as they are fundamentally different approaches to generating immune response, thus testing and validation criteria are different.
A good analogy might be this;
You (the immune system) are sent to find and destroy all examples of an item from the shelves.
Traditional vaccines - I give you one of the actual items you are looking for to take with you for referencing against while you search.
mRNA vaccine - I teach you how to make a replica of only one part of the item for yourself so you can use that part you made as a reference against the parts of the items on the shelves and destroy the items that have that part.
So, you see, the mRNA design never gives the body any live virus, only the instructions on how part of it is constructed in order to recognise it. This is also why there is relatively little concern about covid mutations defeating the vaccine, because the part the mRNA vaccine teaches the immune system about is the part that makes covid so effective at spreading. If that part mutates too drastically, the vaccine won't be as effective, but likely neither will the virus.
Really pretty nifty stuff.
It's a super simplified analogy but that is the difference. The mRNA vaccine tech has also been in testing and developments for around 30 years before covid rolled around so it's not like there was no maturity in the technology before they went full bore with these vaccines on the public.
Again, simplified explanations for brevity. There's a lot of good reading on the topic out there if you care to find out more. Hope that knowing a bit more about it reassures you somewhat.