mRNA Vaccines: It’s not rocket surgery

I think many people underestimate their ability to understand the biology of the immune system. Trust me when I tell you that if you can operate a complicated piece of machinery or a programming language, you can learn enough basic biology to understand how an mRNA vaccine works.

I’m not going to go over it. Motivated minds will find resources on YouTube or thru The Google. Here’s a good overview in pretty easy to digest sections from the Khan Academy. The point is that you don’t need to be a doctor or PhD to know this stuff and ignorance is no excuse for listening to the mindless babble of anti-vaxxers who wouldn’t know the difference between mRNA and DNA if it bit them in the ass.

I hate having to go over this again and for the vast majority of people on this blog, it’s unnecessary. But the fact that there is now a poster of sorts that needs to be widely distributed indicates that the message is still not getting through to the unvaccinated.

Here’s the fact sheet I’m talking about:

And here’s one more way in which folks everywhere are fighting the kind of misinformation that Dr. Bridle is putting out. @SabiVM made this amazing infographic debunking the myths. pic.twitter.com/Lxcu3j93Oo

— Lavanya Krishnan, MS, MPH (@l_krishnan) May 31, 2021

An mRNA vaccine is not technology so advanced that it is indistinguishable from magic. It’s just a stripped down version of the same vaccine technology that we have been using for a century. There’s less viral component to worry about and your cells do all the work.

Whatever.

I’m just really tired of the misinformation, conspiracy theories and hubris that is preventing us from getting to herd immunity. That only adds to the Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt and as anyone who has studied marketing methods knows, salesmen are really good at stirring it up.

Buyer beware.