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Remember the novel coronavirus? A virus never before seen in humans? Remember the lockdowns, social distancing and masks that were our only means of protecting ourselves from that deadly new virus?
In the midst of the greatest public health emergency since the flu pandemic of 1918, scientists took a new vaccine technology, based on mRNA, and ran with it.
The technology wasn’t exactly new. It had been studied for decades. If COVID-19 hadn’t come along when it did, it may have taken longer for vaccine manufacturers to use it. But with Operation Warp Speed—a private-public partnership spearheaded by the U.S. government in the spring of 2020—the entire process was compressed into a shorter-than usual timeframe.
Clinical trials and vaccine production took place simultaneously, and no steps were skipped. Both Moderna and Pfizer carried out large studies of their mRNA vaccine candidates, enrolling tens of thousands of volunteers.
It usually takes several years to develop a new vaccine based on traditional methods. But it took less than a year to roll out not just one but two roughly equivalent, highly effective mRNA COVID-19 vaccines.
As a result, millions of lives have been saved. "Without a doubt, vaccines are one of the greatest achievements of modern medicine," says Dr. Trip Gulick, Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Weill Cornell Medicine.
However, throughout the pandemic and to this day, vaccine skeptics have had an outsize impact, sowing doubt and fear related to the very technology that was saving lives and protecting all of us against the worst effects of the coronavirus.
Now, the skeptical view has become mainstream with cuts happening to mRNA vaccine research projects, which will affect our ability to successfully manage future pandemics.
Continue reading below to understand the impact of mRNA vaccines and importance of their ongoing development.
Traditional vaccines use one of three approaches to trigger an immune response:
Whichever version is used, traditional vaccines are expensive and time-consuming to produce.
The approach taken to produce mRNA vaccines is markedly different. Here’s a rough description of how the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines were developed.
Scientists used the RNA-based genetic sequence of SARS-CoV-2 (the coronavirus that causes COVID-19) and turned it into DNA. That allowed them to identify the instructions needed to create the unique spike protein found on the surface of the virus. Then, they were able to engineer the corresponding synthetic mRNA in the lab and insert it into the vaccine.
mRNA is a platform that can be used to create vaccines against a wide variety of diseases. One of the great advantages of the platform is that a vaccine can be quickly manufactured and scaled up, no matter which virus is being targeted. In other words, by applying mRNA technology, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel every time a manufacturer wishes to make a new vaccine. The only thing they have to do is plug in the new genetic sequence for the virus in question, and a new vaccine is born.
DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) is a stable, double-stranded molecule that stores our genetic information. It lives in the nucleus of our cells. But DNA can’t do anything on its own. To create the proteins the body needs to grow and survive, DNA relies on RNA (ribonucleic acid).
RNA, a single strand of genetic material, implements DNA’s instructions to build the proteins we need. Or, in the case of an mRNA vaccine, don’t need. The innovative mRNA vaccines produced by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna teach the immune system to remember one of the coronavirus’s most telling features—its spike protein—and prompt the creation of antibodies against it.
Why the “m” before RNA? There are actuaslly three types of RNA, all of them key to building the proteins our bodies need for growth and day-to-day functioning. The “m” variety is messenger RNA, the genetic messenger that ferries instructions from DNA to the tiny protein factories, called ribosomes, that live in our cells.
The mRNA molecule is also temporary. Once it instructs the immune system to recognize and fight off a microbial threat, it’s quickly broken down and cleared by the body.That means it doesn’t hang around and cause trouble once its job is done.
The risks associated with the disease itself far outweigh the risks of the vaccine’s side effects. So say the scientists involved with developing the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, those who conducted both early and ongoing clinical trials and those tracking the vaccine’s side effects.
Like all vaccines, the mRNA COVID shots have side effects. These are overwhelmingly mild, such as a sore arm, fatigue and a low-grade fever. Such side effects show that your immune system is working.
Extensive studies conducted in the U.S. and other countries found only a few serious ones. For example, the new vaccines can cause myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle) in a small fraction of young men, and one study reported seven severe cases of shingles for every million shots administered.
These rare side effects, while deeply regrettable, are in line with the safety record of most other vaccines.
Be aware that COVID-19 itself causes myocarditis at much higher rates than the COVID vaccine.
Vaccine side effects among pregnant women are also uncommon. The mRNA COVID vaccines protect them from severe COVID. They also prompt the creation of antibodies that cross the placenta to protect her baby, before and after delivery. The mRNA COVID-19 vaccines act very much like other maternal vaccines, such as the Tdap vaccine (tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis) and even the annual flu shot.
“We still see hospitalizations and deaths from COVID every year,” says Dr. Gulick, “making it even more important to stay current with your COVID booster shots.”
The sheer newness of mRNA vaccine technology, along with the speed of its development during a public health emergency, fueled plenty of skepticism early on. Skeptics continue to embrace a wide range of doubts and criticisms, many of which are questionable or incorrect.
For example, some people fear that the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine changes our DNA. That is impossible, scientists assert. mRNA only operates in the cytoplasm, the watery substance that fills our cells, where protein production takes place. mRNA can’t enter the cell’s nucleus, where our DNA is stored.
HHS leadership, too, has promoted outright falsehoods with respect to mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, including the following statement: “One mutation and the vaccine becomes ineffective.” That is incorrect. SARS-CoV-2 has already accumulated many mutations—also known as variants—and vaccine manufacturers continue to update the vaccines accordingly in the form of boosters.
See the following list of questions and answers per the professional journal RNA Biology, published in March 2022:
All vaccines undergo a rigorous development and approval process before they are made available to the public. After they're administered, ongoing monitoring for long-term safety is continued.
Three decades of research and large-scale clinical trials have generated plenty of data on their safety and efficacy. mRNA vaccines can be designed in only a few weeks, and clinical trials can be conducted much more quickly—crucially important under emergency conditions.
There was early confusion in media reports that the spike protein on the surface of the new coronavirus is the same as the spike protein that plays a role in the development of the placenta in pregnant women. It was falsely reported that the vaccines would generate an immune response against it. In actuality, there’s no risk associated with administering an mRNA COVID vaccine during pregnancy, and no adverse effects on fertility.
Aside from the synthetic mRNA-based spike protein, the vaccines are made of sucrose, cholesterol and fats.
The vaccines don’t contain any metal components. Therefore, they can’t create a magnatic field anywhere in the body.
But all of these false claims aside, the COVID-19 vaccines aren’t perfect.
Years of research show that the protection conferred by COVID-19 vaccines—both those made with mRNA and those based on traditional technology—wanes over time. The shots are most effective at preventing severe infection and death. They’re less effective at preventing mild-to-moderate infection.
Experts agree that we need better vaccines capable of protecting against both infection and severe disease, as well as against a broad range of variants.
Today’s mRNA COVID-19 vaccines can be updated more quickly each year than traditional types, an advantage that now has multiple companies hoping to develop other vaccines using mRNA technology.
Specialists have identified numerous infectious diseases that could benefit from mRNA-based vaccines. But beyond vaccines, the technology offers a potential technique for developing new treatments for certain cancers. Genetic diseases are another target, such as an experimental inhaled therapy for cystic fibrosis.
Unfortunately, the future may not arrive—at least, not as quickly as it could or should.
In September 2025, decision-makers in the House of Representatives have done an about-face, in direct opposition to HHS policy. In amending their 2026 spending bill, they’ve mandating continued funding of mRNA vaccine research. The future of the technology and its benefits to humanity may be within reach after all.
Cutting research funding for mRNA vaccine research will be counterproductive. Doing so will compromise our ability to respond to viral threats like bird flu, which many public health experts see as the disease most likely to cause the next human pandemic.
HHS leadership supports a whole-killed virus approach to vaccine development, a view bolstered by the belief that the spike protein produced by the mRNA vaccine is harmful on its own.
Whole-cell vaccines are based on a crude technology developed more than 100 years ago. They use the entire pathogen. As a result, they may expose the body to hundreds of antigens at once. An antigen can be any foreign substance capable of provoking an immune response.
Whole-cell vaccines can also cause very strong reactions, including seizures and fevers in young children. Over the decades, we’ve developed much simpler, more efficient vaccines that contain only a few antigens. But the newer vaccines are sometimes less protective than the cruder versions.
But that doesn’t mean we need to go back to the future.
The mRNA COVID-19 vaccine is the most scrutinized vaccine in history, and the verdict is in: mRNA technology allows manufacturers to rapidly produce a safe, effective vaccine for the largest number of people.
As for its shortcomings, these can be mitigated via continued research.
Recently, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) had cut 22 mRNA vaccine research projects worth nearly half a billion dollars—cuts that will affect our ability to cope with future pandemics. We’ll also miss out on the opportunity to develop mRNA vaccines for other diseases and improve the ones we already have.
mRNA technology constitutes the next wave of vaccine R&D. Our future demands that we embrace it.