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Pfizer mRNA Vaccine Safety
Former Community Member
This is probably a long shot kind of concern, but if the Pfizer vaccine for Covid-19 works by inducing our bodies to produce the proteins which our immune systems then attack, then wouldn't this be a lot like an autoimmune disease, whereby our body is attacking itself? If these proteins were to be produced indefinitely, in theory they could collect on other tissues, such as joint tissues, and the immune system may attack those healthy tissues in the process of attacking the proteins. Something very much like this collateral damage of healthy tissues is what happens with Rheumatoid Arthritis. Does the vaccine only induce our bodies to make the protein for a very short period of time? Thanks.
The Oxford vaccine adds genetic material from the spike proteins in the virus, along with the common cold. It's Moderna that's also using the mRNA kind of vaccine.
The Oxford vaccine is a conventional type, using inactive material to induce an immune response to some aspect of the target. This process is used for many things, MMR for example, and is known to be effective. The mRNA types are quite different and rather new, with a much less known risk profile. It will be interesting to see the outcome of this large-scale trial, some reports suggest that some people are suffering severe side effects, we shall have to wait for full reports.
