A Donor Bill of Rights
Our body’s immune system was designed to fight against pathogens that cause infections. In other words, they keep microorganisms out or in most cases, get rid of the invading microbes. In some instances, microbes can overpower the immune system. When this happens, our body bears the consequences if we did not get vaccinated.
Microbes most likely to cause illness in our body are the ones our body’s immune system does not recognize, and that is why it is necessary for one to vaccinate. Vaccination is the process of teaching the body or our immune system on how to identify and eliminate these invaders. When you vaccinate, your body is prepared to fight for you when you are exposed to the same organism in the future.
Vaccination plays a very critical role in preventing diseases. Vaccinations made it possible to control diseases that once threatened humanity, such as measles, polio, tetanus, and whooping cough.
Vaccinations do not just protect individuals, but when many people are vaccinated, it helps shield the society or community from the disease. This is known as herd immunity. Widespread vaccinations make it less likely that a susceptible person will come into contact with someone who has the disease.
How exactly does vaccination work?
Aside from vaccines, a healthy immune system fights against any perceived infection. Our immune system is made up of various types of cells. These cells fight and remove any harmful pathogens. Although before this happens, they have to recognize that the pathogen is harmful.
On the other hand, when we introduce a vaccine into our body, it teaches the body to recognize the new disease. The vaccine then stimulates the immune system to produce antibodies against the pathogen’s antigen. Vaccines also go as far as priming the immune cells to remember the type of antigens that cause infection; this allows for faster response to the pathogen in the future.
In more simplistic terms, vaccines work by exposing you to a safer form of the disease. This could work in several ways which include working in the form of a protein or sugar from the make-up of the pathogen, a toxoid containing toxins made by the pathogen, and in form of a weakened pathogen. Our body develops an adaptive immune response when we get vaccinated. This aids the body to fight against an actual disease.
Vaccines are usually administered by injection. In most cases, it comes in two different parts, the first part is the antigen. This is the piece of the disease-causing organism our body must learn to recognize. The second part is the adjuvant. The adjuvant sends a warning signal to the body; it helps the immune system to respond more strongly against the antigen as an infection, and this also helps the body develop immunity to the pathogen.
Are vaccinations safe for the body?
Vaccines are generally considered to be safe. Vaccines are rigorously tested and usually undergo various rounds of study, examination, and research before they can be used with the general public. Numerous research and evidence have shown that vaccines are safe. Although some side effects are very minimal. It is safe to say that the benefits of vaccines outweigh their side effects. The most significant risks for most people will come if you choose not to get vaccinated and potentially get sick after disease exposure.
Vaccine side effects
Most side effects from a vaccine injection are mild. In some cases, some people will experience no side effects at all while others experience mild effects such as:
• Pain, redness, or swelling at the injection site
• Joint pain
• Muscle weakness
• Low-grade to high fever
• Sleep disturbances
• Fatigue
• Memory loss
• Complete muscle paralysis on a particular area of the body
• Hearing or vision loss
• Seizures
It is also important to state that some of the risk factors increase the risk of experiencing side effects from a vaccination. These risk factors include:
• Having a weak or suppressed immune system
• Being sick at the time vaccine was given
• Having a personal or family history of vaccine reactions.
Serious or life-threatening side effects or reactions from vaccines are very RARE. Most people are at a very high risk of becoming ill from the disease if they choose not to vaccinate.
Effectiveness of vaccines
Vaccines are considered to be highly effective, although no vaccine has achieved one hundred percent efficacy. Vaccine efficacy differs from one vaccine to another.
Vaccine ingredients
As stated previously, vaccines teach the immune system to identify and recognize a specific bacterium or virus to fight against it should the body encounter the disease again. Four types of vaccines are currently in use (not including the currently FDA-approved mRNA-based COVID-19—which I will be discussing later). These include:
• Killed (inactivated) vaccines—these vaccines are made from a virus or bacterium that is not living.
• Live virus vaccines—this type of vaccine uses a weakened or attenuated version of the virus or bacterium.
• Toxoid vaccines—this type of vaccines usually come from a harmful chemical or toxins that are made by bacteria or viruses. Toxoid-based vaccines do not make you immune to the pathogen, instead, they make you immune to the harmful effects from the toxins of the germ. A tetanus shot is a typical example of a toxoid vaccine
• Subunit, recombinant, polysaccharide, and conjugate vaccines usually take a structural component from a virus or bacterium that can teach your immune system to fight this part of the germ.
Any other ingredients found in the vaccine are used to keep the vaccine safe during production, storage, and transportation. These other ingredients may help the vaccine work more effectively once it is administered. These additives also represent a very small portion of the vaccine.
What are mRNA vaccines?
As discussed previously, conventional vaccines usually contain inactivated or weaker forms of the disease-causing pathogens or proteins made by the pathogen (antigen), which works by mimicking the infectious agent. In other words, they stimulate the body’s immune response so it is primed to respond more rapidly and effectively if exposed to the infectious agent in the future.
The ribonucleic acid (RNA) vaccines use a completely different method that takes advantage of the process that cells use to make proteins. Cells use DNA as the template to make messenger RNA (mRNA) molecules which are then translated to make proteins. An mRNA vaccine consists of mRNA strands that make specific codes for disease antigens. When the mRNA strands are inside the body’s cells, the cells utilize the genetic information to produce the antigen. This antigen is then displayed on the surface of the cell, where it is recognized by the immune system.
Benefits of mRNA Vaccines over conventional approaches include:
• Safety: mRNA vaccines are not made with pathogens particles or inactivated pathogen, and so they are not infectious. Very importantly, RNA does not integrate itself into the host genome; the RNA strands in the vaccine are degraded once the protein is made.
• Efficacy: early clinical trial results indicate these vaccines generate a reliable immune response and are well-tolerated by healthy individuals with just a few side effects similar to the one mentioned previously.
Important challenges
The method used to make mRNA vaccines can be very reliable and effective, however, some technical challenges must be overcome to ensure these vaccines work as intended, these include:
• Unintended effects: the mRNA strand in the vaccine may elicit an unintended immune reaction. To minimize this, the mRNA vaccine sequences are designed to mimic those produced by mammalian cells.
• Delivery: effectively delivering the vaccine to cells could be challenging since free RNA in the body is quickly broken down. To help achieve delivery, the RNA strands are incorporated into a larger molecule to help stabilize it.
How COVID-19 mRNA works
COVID-19 mRNA vaccine gives specific instruction for our body cells to produce a harmless piece of what is known as the “spike protein” which is found on the surface of the virus that causes COVID-19. The vaccine is given in the upper arm muscle. Once the instructions are inside the muscle cells, the cells use them to make the protein piece. After the protein piece is made, the cell breaks down the instructions and get rid of them. Next, the cell displays the protein piece on its surface. Our body’s immune systems recognize that the protein does not belong there and begin building an immune response and making antibodies, such as what happens in natural infection against COVID-19.
At the end of this process, our bodies have learned how to protect against future infection. The benefit of getting an mRNA vaccine, like all vaccines, is those vaccinated gain this protection without ever having to risk the serious consequences of getting sick with COVID-19.
Simple facts about COVID-19 mRNA vaccine
• COVID-19 vaccine cannot give someone COVID-19—mRNA vaccines do not use a live virus that causes COVID-19.
• COVID-19 vaccine does not in any way affect or interact with your DNA—mRNA never enters the nucleus of the cell, which is where our DNA (genetic materials) are located. The cells break down and get rid of the mRNA soon after it is finished using the instructions.
In times like this, keeping ourselves and our neighbors safe should be the utmost priority. There are various ways we can do this: choose to get the COVID-19 vaccine. There are a lot of unfounded and conspiracy stories out there deterring people from getting the life-saving vaccines. Scientifically speaking, there is no direct evidence linking the vaccine to any known permanent adverse effects other than the few side effects we mentioned earlier.
References
National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (2020). Vaccine basics https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd/vpd-vac-basics.html
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2020). Benefits of getting the COVID-19 vaccine https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/vaccine-benefits.html
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2020) Facts about COVID-19 vaccines https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/vaccine-benefits/facts.html
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2019). What is a vaccine? https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/parents/ingredients.html
US Department of Health and Human Services (2020) https://www.vaccines.gov/basics/vaccine_ingredients
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