Honestly, unless there has been additional developments in this field I'm unaware of, I'm OK with tempering the mRNA "revolution."

Boost responses with COVID vaccines were starting to bleed into detrimental territory with effects like induction of IgG4 and even primary doses were in a breadth of adverse events that was problematic.

For vaccines against non-pandemic infectious diseases, the only real benefit is cost. More can be produced for less, or less for less.. It becomes a cost-benefit analysis for markets that are important regionally.

Where mRNA can really shine, however, was in the speed and flexibility of it's design and production. Areas like pandemic diseases or personalized vaccines for things like cancer are where it really shines.

#2 | Posted by reinheitsgebot

Ok, so a few of my quibbles with that article...

and can be developed more quickly than traditional vaccines.

Well...sort of. mRNA vaccines remove the step of protein production from the manufacturing pipeline. You're no longer having to make the protein for purification, you simply purify the mRNA and let the body do that (multiple layers of nuance, not going in to them all).

However, for something like influenza, the current vaccine platform is plug and play. New yearly vaccines simply have the current HA gene inserted while the rest remains the same. Development is the same while manufacturing is quite different.

Here's the problem; mRNA only codes for a small part of the viral proteins, usually a single antigen. One mutation and the vaccine becomes ineffective.

This very basic statement of ignorance or misinformation wasn't addressed. The "expert" gave a canned answer that didn't explain why this is wrong.

It's wrong because an antigen is not the entirety of a protein. S protein that was included in the COVID vaccines contains multiple antigens. An antigen is simply the very specific portion of a protein an antibody or T cell targets.

The portion of his answer about driving a virus to change and creating doubt? Not at all relevant and simply canned responses.

Not going further now as that's a lot of BS for a short portion of an interview.