As fatiguing as 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic have been, science has stepped up this year to provide humankind with a pair of truly hopeful gifts: the first two FDA approved COVID-19 vaccines.
Two weeks ago, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted emergency use authorization (EUA) to a COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer/BioNTech, enabling distribution to begin to certain high-risk groups just three days later.
More recently, the FDA granted an EUA to a COVID-19 vaccine from the biotechnology company Moderna, Cambridge, MA. This messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine, which is part of a new approach to vaccination, was co-developed by NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).
The EUA of the Moderna vaccine is based on data showing the vaccine is safe and 94.5 percent effective at protecting people from infection with SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
Messenger-RNA vaccines are safe
The two vaccines currently authorized for EUA in the United States work in a unique way. Their centerpiece is a small, non-infectious snippet of mRNA. Our cells constantly produce thousands of mRNAs, which provide the instructions needed to make proteins. When someone receives an mRNA vaccine for COVID-19, it tells the person’s own cells to make the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, according to information provided by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). The person’s immune system then recognizes the viral spike protein as foreign and produces antibodies to eliminate it.
This vaccine-spurred encounter trains the human immune system to remember the spike protein. So, if an actual SARS-CoV-2 virus tries to infect a vaccinated person weeks or months later, his or her immune system will be ready to fend it off. To produce the most vigorous and durable immunity against the virus, people will need to get two shots of mRNA vaccine, which are spaced several weeks to a month apart, depending on the vaccine.
Some misinformed individuals (or trolls) have raised concerns on social media that mRNA vaccines might alter the DNA genome of someone being vaccinated. But that’s not possible, since this mRNA doesn’t enter the nucleus of the cell where DNA is located. Instead, the vaccine mRNAs stay in the outer part of the cell (the cytoplasm).
NIAID Director Dr. Anthony Fauci received Moderna’s COVID19 vaccine, co-developed with NIH. It’s imperative that you roll up your sleeve and accept the potentially life-saving gift of a COVID-19 vaccine. Accepting this gift is your best chance to put this pandemic behind you and your family, as we look forward to a better new year.
Today, @NIAIDNews Director Dr. Anthony Fauci received @moderna_tx’s #COVID19 vaccine, co-developed w/ #NIH. Here’s why he chose to #SleeveUp. ⬇️ Photo courtesy of @AP. pic.twitter.com/Wqez0DulMk
— NIH (@NIH) December 22, 2020
Vaccines are the best hope for the nation to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic, public surveys indicate that some people are uneasy about accepting this disease-preventing vaccine. Some have even indicated they will refuse to take the vaccine. Healthy skepticism is a good thing, but decisions like this ought to be based on weighing the evidence of benefit versus risk.
The results of the Pfizer and Moderna trials, all released for complete public scrutiny, indicate the potential benefits are high and the risks, low. Despite the impressive speed at which the new COVID-19 vaccines were developed, they have undergone and continue to undergo a rigorous process to generate all the data needed by the FDA to determine their long-term safety and effectiveness.
Unfortunately, the gift of COVID-19 vaccines comes too late for the more than 313,000 Americans who have died from complications of COVID-19, and many others who’ve had their lives disrupted and may have to contend with long-term health consequences related to COVID-19. The vaccines did arrive in record time, but all of us wish they could somehow have arrived even sooner to avert such widespread suffering and heartbreak.
This holiday season, I'll be celebrating the gift of #COVID19 #vaccines. I hope you’ll join me and accept this gift of science to bring the pandemic to an end. #NIH https://t.co/V6VxynKqhO
— Dr. Monica M. Bertagnolli (@NIHDirector) December 22, 2020
It will be many months before all Americans who are willing to get a vaccine can be immunized. We need 75-80 percent of Americans to receive vaccines in order to attain the so-called “herd immunity” needed to drive SARS-CoV-2 away and allow us all to get back to a semblance of normal personal and professional life.
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