Saturday, April 10, 2021

mRNA vaccine

 mRNA Vaccines: Unlike a traditional vaccine that uses inactivated, dead, or portions of actual virus to spur an immune response, mRNA vaccine delivers a message to your body’s cells v that instructs the cells to generate the spike protein found on the surface of a coronavirus that initiates infection.

“I’m sending you the recipe, create the virus yourself and also destroy it yourself”

Some of the key mRNA vaccine players are :

  • Pfizer BioNTech: The Pfizer BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine is a messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine that has both synthetic, or chemically produced, components and enzymatically produced components from naturally occurring substances such as proteins. The vaccine does not contain any live virus. Its ingredients help our cells replicate the viral spike and generate antibodies against it. Pfizer-BioNtech's Covid-19 vaccine offers at least 97 % effectiveness in symptomatic Covid-19 cases, according to real world data published by the pharma company. The analysis, based on real world data gathered by the Israel Ministry of Health, also found the vaccine's effectiveness at 94 % against asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections. The vaccine appeared to be more or less equally protective across age groups and racial and ethnic groups. The vaccine ideally needs to be kept extremely cold: minus 70 degrees Celsius, which is colder than winter in Antartica. According to Pfizer/BioNTech, the new data demonstrates that their vaccine can be stored at temperatures of -25°C to -15°C, temperatures commonly found in pharmaceutical freezer and refrigerators.
  • Moderna (mRNA-1273) Vaccine: Developed by the United States National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), and Moderna is another mRNA vaccine. The Moderna vaccine was 94.1% effective at preventing symptomatic Covid-19 after the second dose. The vaccine’s efficacy appeared to be slightly lower in people 65 and older, but during a presentation to the Food and Drug Administration’s advisory committee in December, the company explained that the numbers could have been influenced by the fact there were few cases in that age group in the trial. Moderna has said that its vaccine needs to be frozen too, but only at minus 20 Celsius, more like a regular freezer.

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