The mRNA vaccine saved millions of lives during the Covid-19 pandemic, but US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. falsely argued that it was ineffective in justifying the Department of Health’s recent Department of Health justification. Decided to cancel $500 million A government-funded research project used this technology to develop new vaccines.
Longtime vaccine critics X Video On Tuesday evening, he posted that mRNA vaccines are advocating for developing vaccines that will properly prevent upper respiratory tract infections, such as Covid-19 and the flu, and use other processes instead.
COVID-19 is the only virus where actual data on the efficacy of mRNA vaccines is currently available, as mRNA vaccines for other diseases, including influenza, are still in development. Two scientists whose discovery has enabled the creation of mRNA vaccines against Covid-19 Winner of the Nobel Prize in 2023 For their work.
Experts say Kennedy’s claims ignore how mRNA vaccines work. They prevent severe infections and death, but they cannot completely prevent infections from occurring in the first place. Furthermore, years of research support the efficacy of Covid-19 vaccines using mRNA technology.
Let’s take a closer look at the facts.
Kennedy: “As the pandemic has shown us, mRNA vaccines don’t work well against viruses that infect the upper respiratory tract.”
Fact: His claims are inconsistent with scientific evidence. Countless studies have shown that vaccinated individuals are far better at Covid-19 infections than unvaccinated individuals, while others estimate that the Covid-19 vaccine has prevented millions of deaths during the global pandemic. The mRNA vaccine does not completely prevent respiratory disease, experts say. Rather, they can prevent more serious illnesses that lead to complications and death. For example, mRNA vaccines against Covid-19 may prevent upper respiratory tract infection. The upper respiratory tract may feel like the cold spreading into the lower respiratory tract is poor, which can affect your breathing ability.
“Vaccinations cannot stop respiratory infections,” said Dr. Jake Scott, an infectious disease physician and clinical associate professor at Stanford University School of Medicine. “That wasn’t the standard for respiratory virus vaccines. And it was never expected and not very realistic,” he called Kennedy’s claim “misguided.”
Jeff Koller, professor of RNA biology and therapy at Johns Hopkins University, had similar prospects.
“The vaccinations don’t need to be neutralized, meaning you’re not going to get covid,” he said. “But a key part of vaccination is reducing hospitalizations and deaths, and reducing hospitalizations and deaths is evidence of an effective vaccine.”
HHS officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Vaccines traditionally required growing viruses or fragments of viruses called proteins and purifying them. Then, they inject small amounts of vaccines and train their bodies to learn how to recognize when they hit an actual infection, and are ready to fight back. However, this method takes a long time. mRNA Technology Speed up the process It will allow for more rapid updates to existing vaccines.
The “M” in mRNA stands for messenger. Vaccines are because our bodies have instructions to make protein. Scientists have come up with ways to leverage the natural processes of vaccines by making mRNA in the lab. They take snippets of genetic codes that convey instructions to make proteins that want to target the vaccine. Inject that snippet and tells the body to become its own mini-vaccine factory, making sufficient copies of the protein for the immune system to recognize and respond.
Scott explained that mRNA vaccines are not “magic force fields” that the immune system can use to block infections, as they cannot detect whether the virus is nearby. It can only respond to viruses that have already entered the body. In the case of Covid-19, this means that the virus can cause an upper respiratory tract infection.
Countless studies on the effectiveness of the Covid-19 vaccine have been published since it first became available in late 2020. Protection declines over time, but it provides the strongest barrier to severe infection and death.
For example, a 2024 Research The World Health Organization has found that the Covid-19 vaccine reduced the deaths of the WHO European region by at least 57%, saving more than 1.4 million lives since its introduction in December 2020.
a 2022 Research Featured in Journal Lancet Infectious Diseases I found it In the first year, the Covid-19 vaccine saved nearly 20 million lives. Using data from 185 countries, researchers estimate that the vaccine prevented 4.2 million Covid-19 deaths in India, 1.9 million in the US, 1 million in Brazil, 631,000 in France and 507,000 in the UK. The main findings – 19.8 million Covid-19 deaths were prevented – are based on estimates of whether more than usual deaths occurred during the period. Using only reported Covid-19 deaths, the same model yielded 14.4 million deaths avoided by the vaccine.
Another 2022 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine; I reported that The two mRNA vaccines were more than 90% effective against Covid-19.
Operation warp speeda federal government’s efforts to promote the development and distribution of Covid-19 vaccines has begun. Under the first Trump administration.
“What I don’t understand is why is President Trump allowing RFK Jr. to undermine his legacy that led to medical interventions that literally saved millions of lives?” Koller said. “Why is Trump allowing RFK to undermine US leadership in biomedical research and drug development?”
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