Prognostications on MRNA platforms
There is a lot of conflicting information on the interwebs about MRNA technology in the prevention and treatment of disease. Managing a chronic illness as I do (erythromelagia), I am very careful about the things that I put in my body. When it comes to the COVID jab, I didn’t have a choice. I had a very narrow window of time to research the subject before I would be fired for not taking the jab. Also, my college insisted that students be jabbed even if they, like me, never set foot on campus (I’m still wondering how one can transmit a disease via Zoom).
I found that MRNA platforms are different than traditional vaccines. According to most sources, the MRNA platform attaches itself to the surface of target cells, produces the desired protein, then gets obliterated by the body’s defenses and flushed out with the trash via the lymphatic system. These desired proteins are attacked by one’s immune system, which then remembers how it defeated the invader in case it sees such a protein again.
According to these sources, there is no “heritability” of this defense mechanism because the MRNA platform never penetrates into the heart of cells to re-write the DNA. That’s good news, I guess. The downside, it seems, is that your immune system generally gets rid of this surface material within a few months … plus, there’s no permanent changes to your system. This seems to be the basis of the new recommendations around getting “boosted” every two months.
Most of the available data, plus all of the talking heads in the media and government say that the MRNA platform is safe for most people. Notice the qualifiers? “MOST.” Am I included in “most?”
It didn’t matter at the time. I like to have a house and food, so I took the jab and kept my job.
They said, initially, that having the jab meant I wouldn’t get COVID and, if somehow I got it, I certainly wouldn’t transmit it to others. It later came out that the jab was never tested against transmission. In the US, the leadership made various claims to drive up vaccination rates. A lot of these claims proved to be untrue.
In the end, it seems that once you get the jab, your risk of death from COVID might be a bit lower than it otherwise would be if you didn’t get the jab. But even that data is mixed. In my own circle, the three people that I know that died of COVID were all supposedly immune to it for one reason or another.
What is absolutely true is the world’s response to COVID minted many new billionaires. Moderna recently released its 2021 annual report which showed the pharmaceutical giant made $12.2 billion in profits that year. Pfizer similarly reported $21.9 billion in profits in the same time, while Johnson & Johnson reported $4.7 billion. Whilst vaccines aren’t the only products these companies make, they themselves will be the first to tell you that the credit for this incredible fiscal year is largely due to the production of their respective COVID-19 vaccines.
One thing they might be slower to mention is that these profits are made on the backs of government spending. Massive amounts of public funding have gone into the production of the COVID-19 vaccines used in the U.S. For example, the U.S. government provided Moderna with nearly $10 billion in taxpayer money for the research and development of their vaccine, along with the purchase of 500 million doses of the vaccine. This incredible price tag reportedly covered almost the entire cost of the clinical development for their vaccine. Moderna was also given access to patents by the U.S. government that they used to make their vaccine. In the US, risk is socialized and profit is privatized. Such is the nature of things in our Oligarchy.
Meanwhile, around the world, there has been a lot of focus on COVID-19 vaccine inequalities between high-income and low- and middle-income countries. For instance, it is estimated that up to 70% of all vaccines to be produced in 2021 were pre-booked by a handful of countries.
In Africa, about half of the countries there have full vaccination rates below 2%. With that dismal rate of vaccination, you might expect there to be very few people left alive in Africa. Yet, the data show this not to be true. Africa, according to the WHO, has the lowest death count. The BBC asked why. The results aren’t that surprising. They didn’t have the money to spend on vaccines … well, that’s not entirely true. They didn’t have the money to try to outbid others to buy the remaining or unspoken for vaccines that were on the market. They got some from China, some from Russia, some from Cuba, and some from the West. Mainly, they concentrated on simple things like distancing and hygiene.
Oddly enough, from a Western POV, Cuba did quite well with the development of their traditional vaccine. Their work shows that one can produce an effective COVID vaccine using the old methodology.
So, inside of my autistic brain, I saw a pattern emerge. The Big Pharma oligarchs in the West saw an opportunity to accelerate MRNA platform development without risk to their shareholders. In fact, their work made them considerably more wealthy in the process. You and I bore the financial risk and they reaped the benefits.
There’s no doubt that MRNA platform technology is some really cool futuristic stuff. But, the case of Cuba, Russia, and China show that you can develop a COVID vaccine along traditional lines. You can examine the covid death data by country vs. which vaccine was dominant in that country and form your own opinion. According to this meta-analysis, my Pfizer jab is no more effective vs. initial infection than the Sputnik V jab - 86%. But, I can’t choose the more traditional Sputnik V because … Putin Bad (or, it doesn’t make money for Western oligarchs).
I tried to be as apolitical about this assembly as possible. Please feel free to share comments and resources below.