Hello everyone and welcome back to The Friendly Neighborhood Shark Lady! Due to some stuff going on in my personal and work life, I ended up taking a bit of an unexpected break during the holidays, but I’m back and so happy to be sharing fun science facts with you again! Today we are going to touch on a very important topic; the COVID-19 vaccine. I know vaccination can be a bit of a controversial topic, and there is a lot of misinformation floating around out there, but I am going to do my best to explain how the vaccine was developed, how it works, and its safety in a clear, easy to understand way.
For some background, so you know I am a reliable source, here are some of my credentials. Throughout high school, I took a large number of medical classes through our vocational school with the intention of going into the medical field, but decided my true passion was in wildlife biology and switched gears in college. I graduated from Murray State University in May 2019 with a bachelor's degree in Biology. During my undergraduate career, I participated heavily in student research projects throughout my various classes, working in a research lab, as well as conducting and completing my own undergraduate thesis project. I am well versed in reading and understanding scientific research papers as well as finding reliable sources. Currently, I am working as a certified pharmacy technician in an in-patient hospital setting. This has given me even greater insight into the development of the vaccine through the amazing pharmacists I work with every day. I have also personally had my first dose of the vaccine and will be getting my second round in the near future. I will talk about my own experience more in-depth later on.
First of all, let’s start by learning about our immune system. Your immune system is a network of different tissues, organs, and cells that work together to keep germs out of your body and fight them off if they do make it in your body. When your body senses a foreign invader (commonly called an antigen), like the COVID-19 virus, it mounts an attack and creates antibodies (commonly called immunoglobulins). Now, when your immune system encounters a new antigen, it can sometimes take a bit of time for it to figure out how to defeat it. While it is making its game plan, the antigen is multiplying and infecting more and more cells. This is when you get sick. As your immune system figures out how to defeat the antigen, you start to get better and recover.
The antibodies created by our immune systems stay in our body even after the antigen has been defeated. They are like a special task force specifically trained to take out that specific antigen so that if you ever encounter it again your immune system already knows how to defeat it before it makes you sick. It’s basically like your immune system saying, “Hey, I know this jerk. This is how we beat him last time, take him out!” We use vaccines to train our immune systems to create antigens to various diseases without having to catch them and get sick.
Most vaccines use either a weakened or inactivated version of the virus in question to train your immune system. The COVID-19 vaccine itself is a bit different from other vaccines in that it is an mRNA vaccine, so it does not contain any part of the COVID-19 virus. So, what is mRNA? In a nutshell, mRNA (or messenger RNA) is the blueprint created by your DNA that gives cells instructions on how to make something. RNA is generally pretty unstable and doesn’t hang around in your body very long. It tells the cells how to make whatever it is they need to make and then it breaks down. Your DNA is constantly churning out different types of RNA used for various processes in your cells.
The COVID-19 vaccine works by training our immune system to attack the spike proteins found on the surface of the COVID-19 virus (the little red spikes you see in all the pictures)
by injecting an mRNA sequence that codes for that spike protein. The spike protein is what the virus uses to break into our cells and infect them. These proteins make the virus much more infectious than it would be without them. Researchers looked at the DNA sequence of the COVID-19 virus and found the section that coded for that spike protein. They were then able to create mRNA in the lab that would code for that same protein. The protein itself cannot make you sick, it just helps the virus make you sick much easier.
So, once that mRNA sequence is injected into your body, your cells find it and start producing that protein. This is where your immune system comes in. Your immune system recognizes that that protein shouldn’t be there and starts to mount an attack and destroy that protein. The spike protein on the COVID-19 virus is now on your immune system’s hypothetical hit list. If it ever sees it again, it knows exactly what to do to take it out quickly. This means that if some of the COVID-19 virus itself finds its way into your body, your immune system will immediately stage an attack even though it has never encountered the virus itself and the COVID-19 virus is unable to replicate throughout your cells and infect you.
One of the most common concerns I have come across, and one of my own biggest concerns when I was deciding if I should take the vaccine or not, was how quickly it was developed. Typically, it takes anywhere between 10 and 20 years for a vaccine to be developed, tested, and approved for use and it has taken less than a year for the COVID-19 vaccine to be developed and approved. Let’s discuss how a vaccine is developed first and then we can discuss why the COVID-19 vaccine was able to be fast-tracked.
All vaccines start out in the research and development phase (or preclinical phase). During this phase researchers study whatever virus they are developing the vaccine for to determine which antigen should be used to provoke an immune response. This phase can last for years and does not include testing on humans. Potential vaccines are first tested in animals in order to evaluate their safety and ability to prevent disease.
After the preclinical phase, researchers begin testing the potential vaccine in humans. This is called phase 1. During phase 1 the vaccine is given to a small number of volunteer study participants to study its safety, confirm an immune response, and determine the correct dosages needed. During this phase, volunteers are typically young, healthy adults.
After phase 1, we move on to phase 2. During phase 2 the vaccine is given to several hundred volunteer study participants. These participants tend to be of the same sex and age as whoever the vaccine is intended for. Typically there are multiple trials during this phase to evaluate various formulations of the vaccine and different age groups. Researchers continue to study the safety of the vaccine and its ability to generate an immune response during this phase.
After phase 2, we enter the final phase of development, phase 3. During phase 3 the vaccine is given to thousands of volunteer study participants. The results are then compared to thousands of other volunteer study participants that were given a placebo in place of the actual vaccine. During this phase, neither the researchers nor the participants know whether they have received the actual vaccine or the placebo. This is called a double-blind test and ensures that neither participant nor researcher is influenced in their assessment of the vaccine by knowing which product was used. After the trial results are finalized the researchers and participants are informed of which product was used. Phase 3 trials are conducted across multiple countries and in multiple states in those countries to ensure that the vaccine applies to differing populations found across the globe.
Once phase 3 is complete and the study results are finalized, governing bodies in various countries then review the study for efficacy and safety and determine if it will be approved or denied for use in that country. For example, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is the governing body in the United States that determines if a vaccine is approved for use. Vaccines must be proven safe and effective across a broad population in order to be approved for use and the bar for approval is set extremely high.
So how was the COVID-19 vaccine able to be developed and approved so quickly? Well, one of the main factors is funding. Typically there is a lot of wait time in between phases as the company or researchers developing the vaccine wait on funding from various private and governmental bodies. For the COVID-19 vaccine, the government basically signed a blank check and gave them all of the financial resources they needed. Researchers also received donations from various companies and private individuals, like Dolly Parton, which also helped fund the studies. Because of this funding, they were also able to conduct the different testing phases in tandem with mass production of the vaccine. They didn’t have to wait for phase one to be complete, then wait for more funding, then conduct phase 2, then wait for more funding, and so on. They did not cut any corners and the standards for safety and efficacy were not lowered. Multiple outside nongovernmental agencies also reviewed the studies to ensure safety as well.
As with any vaccine, there are some potential side effects. You may experience some soreness at the injection site, low-grade fever, headache, and fatigue. These are completely normal reactions, and reactions that you want! These are signs that your immune system is mounting an attack against the proteins your cells produce because of the vaccine! It means it’s working! There have been reports of other severe allergic reactions in people that have a history of allergic reactions to vaccinations. If you have a history of allergic reactions to vaccines, or have any other health concerns, please discuss them with your doctor when making your decision on whether to vaccinate or not. This vaccine has proved to be very safe and effective (approximately 95% immunity after the second dose) and is the first step to getting back to a sense of normalcy in life.
Now for my personal experience. As I stated earlier, I received my first dose of the vaccine on December 22nd. I have experienced minimal side effects myself. I had some soreness at the injection site for a couple of days, but have felt relatively normal outside of that. I will say that I have multiple chronic illnesses, so I may have had other side effects, but just didn’t notice them because they mimic symptoms of my other illnesses. For myself, any minor side effects are well worth the decrease in my likelihood of contracting and spreading COVID-19. Working in a hospital setting I have seen the darkest sides of this pandemic. I have been the person having to sprint across the hospital to deliver emergency medications because a patient is starting to crash and needs to rapidly be put on a ventilator. I have also come close to losing family members to this terrible virus. It really isn’t “just some flu.” It is so much deadlier and is causing long term damage that some may never fully recover from.
I know that the vaccine is not available to the general public just yet, so what should you do in the meantime to reduce your chances of contracting and spreading COVID-19? One important step you can take is to get your yearly flu vaccine. This will not protect you against COVID-19, but it will help keep much-needed hospital beds available for COVID patients and lessen the workload on our hospitals as we enter flu season. It is also so important for all of us to wash our hands, wear a mask when we are in public, social distance, and stay home as much as possible. I know it is hard. I know it is exhausting. I am exhausted. I long for days spent with friends and traveling, but I also know that this is temporary. We will fight this virus, we will return to our new normal, and we will continue to grow and thrive as human beings. If wearing a mask, staying home, and staying distant saves just one life, it is all worth it to me. Let’s all come together, support one another, and make it through this despite all of the hardship and heartache this year and this pandemic have brought.
Thank you so much for learning with me today. I know the topic of vaccination can be controversial, but I hope you can see that I am coming from a place of caring when I say I hope you will all consider getting vaccinated when given the chance. If you have any other questions regarding the vaccine, please don’t hesitate to reach out. I will do everything in my power to find answers for you. This vaccine is a tiny pinprick of light at the end of a very long, hard, exhausting tunnel, and I am so grateful for it. We are not out of the tunnel yet, but we are that much closer.
Sources:
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/coronavirus/in-depth/coronavirus-vaccine/art-20484859
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