Thread by @MaxKennerly

The new thing on the right is calling the COVID vaccines "gene therapy." That's like saying horses are solar-powered because they eat plants. It's wordplay, the type of statement that is only "true" in a silly, useless, bad faith way.

Let's discuss.
/1

A viral vaccination works by putting something like the virus in your body so your immune system can learn to fight the virus. You can use a weakened or dead version of the virus, a specific part of the virus, or code for part of the virus.
/2

https://twitter.com/WHO/status/1356176374965407744

The vaccines carry code for the COVID spike protein. J&J carries it in DNA stuffed into a virus that can't replicate (Ad26), Moderna & Pfizer carry it in mRNA. Your cells read it and start making the spike protein.

None of them change your own genes.
/3 nytimes.com/interactive/20…

Here's the actual gene therapy products approved by FDA (notice, no COVID vaccines).

LUXTURNA, for a genetic form of retinal dystrophy, is real gene therapy. It delivers human genes to retinal cells.

The COVID vaccines have nothing like that.

/4
fda.gov/vaccines-blood…

"But but this SEC filing"—spare me. Yes, way back in 1993, the FDA said anything carrying genetic material is "gene therapy." Why? So companies can't evade regulation. It's intentionally broad.

In practice today, vaccines and gene therapy aren't even in the same FDA office.
/5

"But but this mRNA or Ad26 article says gene therapy"—yeah, it does, so what? The mRNA & Ad26 platforms can be used for human gene therapy. That is not what is in the COVID vaccines. They carry the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein code, and then they rapidly degrade.
/6

The irony is, researchers have been so keen on mRNA vaccines because they are so *limited* and presumably safer. It's sending in *just* the thing you want to send in (in our case, the spike protein code) and nothing else.

/end
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…