Israeli experts analyze long-term effects of mRNA COVID vaccine

Thousands of Israelis have rushed back to their health fund in search of a third COVID-19 vaccination and a green pass from isolation after traveling abroad, so others have another injection of mRNA. Is asking if it is safe.

The US Food and Drug Administration provided full approval for the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine last week, but said in its press release that “information on potential long-term health outcomes is not yet available.”

He explained that no other vaccine was evaluated for 10 years prior to approval, and that no other vaccine is an mRNA vaccine, but no other vaccine has been associated with significant long-term effects.

Michal Linearl, a professor of biochemistry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said: “I don’t know of any other case where the immune system suddenly decides to react to a vaccine given 15 years ago,” she said.

Few people are nervous about boosting an already approved vaccine.

If a person is cut with rusty metal and goes to the doctor, a medical professional will probably tell him to get a booster tetanus vaccination. This person is unlikely to ask the doctor if the booster is safe or if it can prevent her pregnancy or he having a baby.

“This is the same thing,” said Linear. “This was a breakthrough and people were shocked. It’s a kind of satellite to the moon and I don’t want to be the first satellite of the satellite. But now it’s like that. It turns out that it’s not something like that. “

Rather, more than 2 billion people worldwide have been vaccinated with COVID-19 more than 5 billion times. For example, approximately 210 million Pfizer mRNA doses are distributed in the United States. In Israel, more than 8.5 million doses have been given.

Broche said this does not mean that the vaccine will change people’s genetic code. Rather, he said, mRNA is more like a computer, in this case a USB device that is inserted into your body. It does not affect your computer’s hard drive, but it runs certain programs.

The woman received a third dose of COVID-19 vaccine at the Meuhedet Vaccination Center in Jerusalem last week. (Credit: YONATAN SINDEL / FLASH90)

“Messenger RNA is a very fragile molecule and can be destroyed very easily,” explained Linear. “For example, if you put the mRNA on the table, there is no mRNA left in less than a minute, which is in contrast to the DNA that is as stable as you get.”

She said the vulnerability applies to the mRNA of any organism, whether it belongs to plants, bacteria, viruses, or humans.

Moderna and Pfizer only deliver specific mRNA sequences to cells. Once the mRNA enters the cell, human biology takes over. Ribosomes read the code to build proteins, and cells express proteins in the body.

This is one of the main reasons for believing that the vaccine has no long-term effects, says Professor Eyal Leshem, director of the Travel Medicine and Tropical Diseases Center at the Sheva Medical Center.

In fact, scientists have been experimenting with mRNA for most of the last three decades. Reshem said mRNA vaccines for other diseases, including cancer, have been tested in humans for about 10 years, and “long-term effects have not been recorded” in those trials.

Although he admitted that these trials generally involved a small number of participants.

Individuals began vaccination with the mRNA vaccine for COVID-19 as early as July last year, and since then side effects have been closely tracked around the world.

In Israel, the first vaccine was administered on December 20, 2020.

“There is more data on the adverse events of these vaccines than any other vaccine,” Brosh said, adding that so many people have never been vaccinated so quickly. ..

Most adverse events occurred shortly after vaccination and were simply “reactive”, a physical symptom of the inflammatory response. These include fever, muscle aches, swelling at the injection site, and swelling of the lymph nodes. Generally, all symptoms that can be treated with paracetamol.

Vaccines are associated with one “immune-mediated inflammatory phenomenon,” Brosh said, which is myocarditis (myocarditis), a major side effect of young male adults between the ages of 16 and 25. bottom. He said myocarditis was rare and generally mild, and people who developed myocarditis had fully recovered.

In addition, a new study by Clarit Health Services with Harvard University published last week in the New England Journal of Medicine found that unvaccinated people infected with COVID-19 developed myocarditis more than vaccinated people. It was four times more likely to do.

The study found that there were about 2.7 cases of myocarditis per 100,000 people who were vaccinated with the virus, compared to 11 cases per 100,000 people who were not vaccinated. I did.

In general, in this study, individuals vaccinated with Pfizer coronavirus vaccine may suffer from four of up to 25 clinically related side effects (myocarditis, swollen lymph nodes, appendicitis, shingles). Was shown.

In contrast, multiple in unvamped patients, including significantly increased risk of developing myocarditis, pericarditis, arrhythmias, heart attack, stroke, pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis, or acute kidney injury. Increased incidence of serious adverse events.

“So we all know that vaccines are safe and effective. This also applies to the initial dose, and perhaps the booster dose,” Reshem said.

“This is an easy and good technique, and there is no doubt,” said Linar, who believes that most future vaccines will be made from mRNA.

She also said that vaccination is the only way to overcome this pandemic.

“If people want to get back to their lives, they have to be vaccinated,” said Linearl.