I'm in Pfizer's COVID vaccine trial, ask me anything.

[Diomedes]

Yes, I believe so. To my knowledge that's the case. If there's any difference, it would be the volume, not the actual contents. Same stuff that matters.

[Axel]

Are the first and second doses identical?

[Diomedes]

Yup, two shots, 3 weeks apart.

[Challenger007]

I didn't see it if it's here so I'm sorry if you have already answered this.

Are people in your test group getting the follow up shot?

Kind of like the Pfizer vaccine involves re-injecting the drug to bolster the immune response. Well, it was said in the news, in extreme

[Nish]

I didn't see it if it's here so I'm sorry if you have already answered this.

Are people in your test group getting the follow up shot?

[Axel]

"I think it was Moderna who had their vaccine ready just 2 days after the genome of the virus was released back in January."

Damn, that's cool! It's a shame we have all these deaths and practically the whole time there's the safe, effective, vaccine in the labs, and we just can't know that for sure until we test it.

Do you envision any future scenario where the basic technology is proven and we can *bam* drop a vaccine on the market in quantity within a month or two? (I guess not, but what the heck, I'll ask the scientist)

[boarder2k7]

I read somewhere that this covid vaccine does not contain a dead virus, like other vaccines do. Is this true? If it is, how is the body developing the antibodies to fight it? I'm a very non-science-y guy, so please explain like I'm a 5 year old. Lol.

This twitter thread does a humorous job of the ELI5 version of how this works.

https://mobile.twitter.com/WheatNOil...24815137722368

[JonM]

I just got my first dose and I’m now waiting for the superpowers to kick in.

[Tarsun2]

the virus looks like a tennis ball with specifically shaped protein spikes on the outside of it. (If you google it, you'll get a much better picture lol)

the mRNA thats injected into the body is the coded sequence for those protein spikes (and only those spikes). your body makes those spikes for a short period of time and they are disposed of by your immune system.
then you're good to go. (in so many words)

now, when the virus enters your body, your immune system sees those spikes on the virus and immediately starts attacking.

this is an overly simplified explanation of the process...

[Brokeass_baller]

Wow that's crazy. Thanks for info!

[Diomedes]

Yeah it's been in the works for a while, but this is the first clinical use. One reason we were able to get these out so fast was that the basic technology was ready to rock, we just had to adapt it to SARS-CoV-2, which turned out to be pretty easy. I think it was Moderna who had their vaccine ready just 2 days after the genome of the virus was released back in January.

[martix_agent]

Are Covid vaccines the first to use the new MRNA technology? We've been doing research on it for quite some time already, right?

[Diomedes]

That is correct, and it's SO COOL.

Gonna nerd out a bit.

There are 4 kinds of vaccines.

Attenuated vaccines involve a weakened virus (or bacteria), So it's alive but doesn't hurt you. For decades, the polio vaccine was attenuated - the virus was actually grown in monkey cells, which caused it to evolve in a way that made it worse at infecting people - so you got a weakened form that caused you to make the antibodies but didn't make you sick.

Inactivated vaccines involve dead viruses/bacteria. So you're exposed to the pathogen, but it's dead, so it can't hurt you. You still make antibodies because your immune system still "sees" it as though it's alive. The flu shot is an inactivated vaccine - it contains dead influenza virus.

Subunit vaccines include just a part of the virus, rather than the whole thing. The part that's included is the part on the outside that your immune system would detect and react to, so as far as your immune system cares, you're still "seeing" the virus. But you're actually only getting a little piece. The HPV vaccine is a subunit vaccine.

Most of the COVID vaccines are the newest kind: mRNA vaccines. mRNA is the intermediate between DNA and proteins in all cells. Store the genes in DNA, copy to mRNA when you need them, and "read" the mRNA to make proteins. So these vaccines contain the mRNA for the viral proteins that your immune system would "see". So you get the shot, the little bit of mRNA gets into your cells, and for about 5 minutes your cells make a s---load of a viral protein (mRNA only lasts about 5 minutes once it's being used). Once they've made the viral protein, your immune system detects it and makes antibodies. So it works basically like a subunit vaccine, except with a TON more of the protein - each mRNA molecule can be used a bunch of times, making one viral protein each time. So it operates on the same principle as a subunit vaccine, but, in general, induces a more robust immune response, which means it should work better/for longer.

Did that make sense?

An analogy I've heard that I like is say you don't like pizza, but someone keeps delivering pizza to your door. You can ID and reject the pizza if someone brings some fake pizza, box and all, so you know what they look like (this is an inactivated vaccine in this analogy), or someone can bring you some empty pizza boxes so you know what to look for (subunit). This new approach is to get the directions to make a bunch of pizza boxes yourself to practice on.

[Brokeass_baller]

I read somewhere that this covid vaccine does not contain a dead virus, like other vaccines do. Is this true? If it is, how is the body developing the antibodies to fight it? I'm a very non-science-y guy, so please explain like I'm a 5 year old. Lol.

[CrowsFeast]

Also TIL that the nose has essentially a separate immune system.

well that's an interesting statement... I'm going to have to read that article when I'm not intoxicated.