Got lots of interest in my RNA vaccine explainer yesterday. The most common follow up questions generally fell into two categories, well stated in the tweet below. I will answer both. 1/5
https://twitter.com/RebeccaChandle1/status/1332589067456966657?s=20
First, to paraphrase: “Isn’t it strange for the immune system to deal with a viral protein from RNA in host cells?” Actually, the human immune system has spent millions of years evolving to recognize viruses this way. (Really, vertebrates have spent 500 million years doing this!)
Viruses regularly express their proteins on infected human cells, and the immune system specifically recognizes those foreign viral molecules. Indeed, many viruses are RNA viruses (they use RNA as their genetic material!), so the immune system is specifically good at this job.
Second, “What about long term vaccine side effects?"
@DrPaulOffit, one of the top vaccine safety experts in the country for decades, has pointed out that vaccines can cause rare, long-term side effects in people. But, (and this is key)
@DrPaulOffit, one of the top vaccine safety experts in the country for decades, has pointed out that vaccines can cause rare, long-term side effects in people. But, (and this is key)
for every vaccine he could think of, any rare safety issue with a vaccine was apparent within two months of immunization. Hence, a reason for the FDA requesting two months of safety data for the RNA vaccines. This is the reason for confidence. 5/5
https://twitter.com/DrPaulOffit/status/1324840427300786177?s=20
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