Description
mRNA vaccines burst onto the medical scene during the COVID-19 pandemic, showing us a new way to fight diseases. Unlike traditional vaccines that use weakened viruses, these vaccines work by giving our cells instructions to make specific proteins that trigger an immune response. While this technology proved valuable during the pandemic, it’s now being rapidly expanded to tackle other diseases like bird flu, HIV, rabies, and stomach bugs (norovirus). This quick expansion is backed by serious money – the U.S. government has put in $176 million for flu vaccines alone, while the World Health Organization is pushing to make these vaccines available worldwide.
However, some medical experts are raising red flags about moving too fast. There are concerns about how these vaccines interact with our body’s natural immune system, particularly how they bypass important defensive proteins called RIG1 and MDA5. Research has found some worrying signs – studies from the Cleveland Clinic suggest that getting multiple mRNA vaccine boosters might actually increase the chance of getting COVID-19, and laboratory studies have shown that certain components of these vaccines might stimulate cancer growth in animals when used in high doses. These findings, combined with historical lessons from medicines like Vioxx (which caused heart problems) and the 2009 swine flu vaccine (which was linked to narcolepsy in children), suggest we need to slow down and study the long-term effects more carefully before rolling out more mRNA vaccines.
