Somewhere between a modern-day medical miracle and the advent of genetically modified human beings lies the truth about the COVID-19 vaccine.



I survived leukemia 40 years ago, so I appreciate the life-saving therapies and procedures of modern-day medicine.



At the same time, I'm not naive enough to believe doctors know everything, drug companies are open books of honesty, or the talking head on Mainstream Media puts truth ahead of ratings or sponsorships.



It's more important than ever for individuals to take personal responsibility for their health and invest time into understanding the pros and cons of decisions such as whether or not to get the COVID-19 vaccine.



In light of the massive hysteria surrounding COVID-19, many Americans are all but begging for a vaccine and accepting whatever their favorite talking head had to say about it.



This blog post won't give you all the answers. I hope it dispels a few myths you might have heard and opens your eyes to some alternative points of view on the vaccine. More than anything, I hope it encourages you to look beyond Google to get answers to the questions you might still have.



Updated 5/26/21 with details about VIPIT and myocarditis.





What is an mRNA vaccine?



Most vaccines you’re familiar with, such as the flu vaccine, contain weakened versions of a virus. When injected, your immune system attacks the virus as it would a full-strength version. Through the immune process of beating the vaccine version of the virus, you’re more prepared to beat the full-strength version if you get infected with it.



mRNA vaccines do not contain viruses. They include the mRNA of a component of the virus.



mRNA vaccines do not contain any virus particle. Instead, they contain a lab designed copy of messenger RNA found in the virus.



In the COVID-19 vaccine, the mRNA contains the instructions for building something called a spike protein.



Instead of injecting you with a weakened version of the actual virus, a healthcare provider injects you with the blueprint for building a spike protein inside your cells. Your cells contain the building blocks, so once the mRNA makes its way inside your cells, your cells do what the mRNA instructs.



You end up building the spike protein yourself, which in my opinion, is a little weird, but I'll reserve my beliefs for the end.



Once you create the spike proteins, they appear on your cells' surfaces. Your immune system recognizes them as antigens, foreign material. It launches an attack on the antigens, which causes you to create antibodies.



In theory, once you’ve developed the antibodies for those spike proteins, you should have a certain level of immunity from the actual virus. If you were to get infected, your immune system would attack the virus by attacking the spike proteins.



mRNA degrades quickly, so (in theory) the mRNA disappears from your cells within a couple of days. It does not remain in your cells indefinitely.



To be clear, this is unlike any other vaccine approved for use in humans. Though mRNA vaccines have been in the works since the early 1990s, animal testing failures have prevented them from being used in humans.



Read also: How are the COVID-19 Cases Counted?



Advantages of mRNA vaccines



mRNA vaccines offer a few advantages over traditional vaccines and DNA vaccines.



First, they’re supposed to be safer. Because the mRNA can be synthetically manufactured in a lab, there’s little chance of vaccine variance from one sample to the next.



Second, they're produced faster and cheaper than traditional vaccines. With traditional vaccines, you have to "grow" them. That takes much longer. The virus grows in a specific environment, which can also trigger side effects in the vaccine recipient. Creating a specific mRNA strand can be done quickly and easily in a lab.



Third, though RNA is a component of “genetics,” the RNA does not alter your body’s DNA. At least that’s the expectation with the COVID-19...