Could mRNA make us superhuman?

‘Until recently most people had never even heard of mRNA vaccines. Now scientists believe they may be the key to solving a wealth of health problems...

‘The theory behind the mRNA vaccine was pioneered by University of Pennsylvania scientists Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman, who both recently received the 2021 Lasker Award, America's top biomedical research prize. Even in 2019, however, mainstream mRNA vaccines were believed to be at least five years away. The pandemic fast-forwarded this field of medicine by half a decade. Kathryn Whitehead, an associate professor of chemical engineering and biomedical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, and a key collaborator of Weissman and Karikó admits, "there weren't many people in the mRNA therapeutics world who would have imagined 95% initial efficacy rates in this emergency scenario".

‘But now, the possibilities are seemingly endless. Or, as Blakney puts it: "Now it's like, OK, so it's worked for a viral glycoprotein, what other vaccines can we make with it? And what can we do beyond that?"... 

‘All this raises the question: could mRNA therapeutics give us almost superhuman immunity? Already Covid-19 mRNA vaccines lead some people to produce very high levels of antibodies, able to neutralise several variants of Covid-19 at once. 

‘There's also the potential to mix various mRNA vaccines together into a single health booster vaccine, which could ward off cancers and viruses at the same time. While it's just speculation at present, Fu says, "you could take a whole bunch of different flavours… a cocktail of mRNAs that make different proteins selective for your particular need." Both Moderna and Novavax already have combined Covid-19 and flu vaccines in development.’

Read here (BBC, Nov 23, 2021)

Why mandatory vaccination is nothing new

‘Mandatory vaccinations have been with us for centuries, quietly saving lives – and they're often largely unopposed until something changes.

‘When chosen carefully, there's no question that mandatory vaccinations can save lives. For example, one study found that patients were substantially less likely to die (with mortality rates of around 13.6% mortality verses 22.4%) in hospitals where healthcare workers had higher rates of flu vaccination compared to those with low rates, though patients were equally as likely to be infected with the virus.

Another European study also found that in countries with mandatory measles vaccinations, and without non-medical exemptions, the disease incidence was 86% lower than in countries without the mandates.   
‘One common tension is between obligation, which can increase hostility, and voluntary vaccination, which can increase transmission. Some health experts are nervous about mandatory vaccination because these policies may diminish trust in medical authorities over the long term. Vaccine mandates have led to violent riots in Brazil and may have contributed to vociferous anti-vaccine movements all over Europe, for instance.

‘In France, one of the world's hotspots of vaccine hesitancy, the Ministry of Health has attempted to reduce the polarising effects of vaccine mandates by embedding mandates within a broader effort to build trust. This has led to improved vaccine coverage, although a significant minority are still vaccine-hesitant – suggesting the importance of continuing to monitor attitudes and strengthening relationships between the medical establishment and the public.’

Read here (BBC, Nov 1, 2021)

Vaccines need not completely stop Covid transmission to curb the pandemic

‘Influenza may provide the best blueprint of what to expect going forward. The most common flu vaccine—the inactivated virus—is not “truly sterilizing because it doesn’t generate local immune response in the respiratory tract,” Crowcroft says. This fact, coupled with low immunization rates (often shy of 50 percent among adults) and the influenza virus’s ability to infect and move between multiple species, enables it to constantly change in ways that make it hard for our immune system to recognize. Still, depending on the year, flu vaccines have been shown to reduce hospitalizations among older adults by an estimated 40 percent and intensive care admissions of all adults by as much as 82 percent.

‘Research on seasonal coronaviruses suggests that SARS-CoV-2 could similarly evolve to evade our immune systems and vaccination efforts, though probably at a slower pace. And data remain mixed on the relationship between symptoms, viral load and infectiousness. But ample precedent points to vaccines driving successful containment of infectious diseases even when they do not provide perfectly sterilizing immunity. “Measles, diphtheria, pertussis, polio, hepatitis B—these are all epidemic-prone diseases,” Crowcroft says. “They show that we don’t need 100 percent effectiveness at reducing transmission, or 100 percent coverage or 100 percent effectiveness against disease to triumph over infectious diseases.”

Read here (Scientific American, Jan 18, 2021)

A flu shot might reduce coronavirus infections, early research suggests

‘In the new study, Mihai Netea, an infectious disease immunologist at Radboud University Medical Center in the Netherlands, and his colleagues combed through their hospital’s databases to see if employees who got a flu shot during the 2019–2020 season were more or less likely to get infected by SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind COVID-19. Workers who received a flu vaccine, the researchers found, were 39 percent less likely to test positive for the coronavirus as of June 1, 2020. While 2.23 percent of nonvaccinated employees tested positive, only 1.33 percent of vaccinated ones did. Netea and his team posted their findings on the preprint server MedRxiv on October 16.’

Read here (Scientific American, Oct 27, 2020)

Fearing a 'Twindemic', health experts push urgently for flu shots

‘As public health officials look to fall and winter, the spectre of a new surge of Covid-19 gives them chills. But there is a scenario they dread even more: a severe flu season, resulting in a "twindemic"... The concern about a twindemic is so great that officials around the world are pushing the flu shot even before it becomes available in clinics and doctors' offices... Dr Robert Redfield, director of the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, has been talking it up, urging corporate leaders to figure out ways to inoculate employees. The CDC usually purchases 500,000 doses for uninsured adults but this year ordered an additional 9.3 million doses.’

Read here (Straits Times, August 17, 2020)