Some days, I do feel like I’d rather belong to any other species. It’s nice to know that there is a way out.
“They are not even technically human anymore. Vaccinated people are honestly a threat to humanity as a whole,” one anti-vaxxer wrote of the meme vilifying those who get the jab.
I’ve been vaccinated! Does this mean I’m not humany anymore? What a relief.
“People who are vaccinated will have modified DNA,” it continues. “No one discusses that DNA is passed onto the next generation. The risk that your children will marry into other cultures is possibly now shadowed by the fact that your children may marry into a COVID vaxed gene group potentially shortening their lives and that of others.”
Except…none of that is true. It’s an RNA vaccine, and unless you happen to have a reverse transcriptase that recognizes the vaccine sequence (hint: YOU DON’T), it’s not going to be inserted into your DNA. It’s going to be translated into a protein that will provoke an immune response until the RNA is degraded, which is inevitable. So nope, it’s not going to modify your genome, and it’s not going to be passed on to your progeny, and your kids will eventually have to be vaccinated.
Darn. I’m still human, and I still share a species with the dishonest twits who spread this misinformation.
“The risk that your children will marry into other cultures…”
You aren’t supposed to say this part out loud
No, you’re human. You still have your Human Award.
I’m still a little unclear on the mRNA vaccines, specifically which cells are responsible for translating them to proteins and how the mRNA gets inside these cells. Is this a trick of technology, or is it something the immune system also does for viral mRNA? I.e., are there cells specifically adapted to engulf free mRNA and synthesize proteins from them just to create antigens?
In the latter case, there seems to be little to worry about. Either way, SARS-CoV-2 is spreading a lot more non-human genetic material around your body than the vaccine. Worry about the disease, not a small, controlled dose of mRNA.
Note: I have had one shot of Moderna and so far no craving to eat human brains, but I have considered that this is really going to suck if I’m being too sanguine and we have some kind of I Am Legend situation on our hands.
I forgot to add. I often think I like plants better than animals. They seem to have a much simpler, less Rube-Goldbergy approach to survival.
“It’s an RNA vaccine, and unless you happen to have a reverse transcriptase”
Corona itself doesn’t even use reverse transcriptase. It has no DNA stage in it’s replication. Some viruses do however. But that would mean that the VIRUS modifies your DNA and the VACCINE prevents your DNA from being modified.
@ PaulBC
Note: I have had one shot of Moderna and so far no craving to eat human brains, but I have considered that this is really going to suck if I’m being too sanguine and we have some kind of I Am Legend situation on our hands.
I haven’t even had my shot yet and I’m already craving human brains. Then again I am a cannibal.
Wikipedia describes Endogenous retroviruses as being 1-8% of the human genome. And indicates that everything with a jawbone has them. So it’s too late to avoid being related to people with viruses or antibody capabilities. The anti-vaxxers need to go date pre-jawbone worms.
I’m with Paul BC @3, how does the mRNA get into your cells? Inquiring minds want to know.
And yeah, I had one Moderna shot, and I just got too tired to eat brains. For years I’ve had yearnings to reach down the throats of some of my undergrads and pull out their larynxes and tongues by the roots, so we’ll see if I act on that after my second shot.
I’m kind of the opposite of an anti-vaxxer: I’m a vaccine addict. I troll around looking for any vaccines I can get that my insurance will pay for. That makes me a bot by this point, I suppose. I’m mighty fine with that.
I didn’t even know that RNA and DNA could be incorporated into one molecule, doesn’t the different sugar make any difference?
Meanwhile Naomi Wolf was on Fox News last night spewing antivax stupidity, including claiming Dr. Fauci and Israel are in on some sort of vaccine conspiracy.
https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-keeps-hosting-pandemic-conspiracy-theorist-naomi-wolf
@3 and 8:
The lipid formulation does the trick:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27281205/
However, injection into lymphnodes is sufficient, too, without lipoplexes:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21368901/
@paulBC #4:
Given the degree to which plants exhibit polyploidy, surely it’s the opposite?
SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines: RNA + lipid nanoparticles
The lipids are important for cellular uptake. Also, modified RNA is used to reduce the immune reaction to the vaccine mNRA itself (as opposed to the expressed product of the vaccine mRNA).
I almost started believing this guy when the Bill Gate’s microchip that was injected into me gave me a jolt and set my mind right.
#10 & #12 answered for me. You aren’t injected with naked RNA, it’s packaged up in vesicles that get taken up by the cell membrane, and once the contents get into the cytoplasm are translated on ribosomes.
Garnetstar- the endogenous retrovirus components of the genome are DNA at that point, not RNA anymore so the chromosome is not mixed DNA/RNA in one molecule. However, in normal DNA replication an RNA primer is created first, then replaced by a later polymerase that cuts out the short lengths of RNA primer and replaces them with DNA, since all DNA polymerases require some type of primer to start.
This is a form of eliminationist rhetoric, and it’s extremely dangerous.
I think because some people have the SARS thingy lingering on, a goofy inference was made that the virus causing COVID was being transcribed into victim DNA:
https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/covid-19-vaccines-versus-purity-of-essence/
And:
https://www.deplatformdisease.com/blog/does-sars-cov-2-have-a-reverse-transcriptase
I found the way this bastard virus coopts rough ER and other stuff (hand wavy on my part) and converts that to RTC factories both fascinating and scary as shit. This video at around 41:00:
https://youtu.be/8_bOhZd6ieM
I want no part of that. Vaccine please!!! And boosters. The actual facts about these coronaviruses are scary enough. No need to invent wild reverse transcription scenarios.
If I had children, I probably wouldn’t want them to marry anti-vaxers. 8-)
Well, the AZ vaccine is DNA based (adenovirus vector, which is a DNA virus). However (touches sore shoulder) I’m pretty sure they didn’t inject it into my balls, so passing it on to the next generation seems unlikely.
Re: hemidactylus @ #17…
Cool! So I’ve got a chance to start manufacturing my own Real Time Clocks (RTCs)? Can they be extracted, fitted to PCBs and mounting sockets with a battery holder so I can quit buying them for my Raspberry Pis?
Re; billseymour @ #18…
I have kids (2) and they aren’t married to anti-vaxxers.
Off topic: Guilty, Guilty, Guilty!
Mass shooting at vaccination center. 10… 9… 8…
Sorry if I come off as flippant, but it’s only a question of time.
The only thing that can stop a vaccinated person is an unvaccinated person with a gun. Wait, have I got that right?
Thanks, 10 and 12 and PZ and 15! I learned something.
And I thought chemistry was complicated…..
I was thinking “stop the world deal me out” the other day listening to jim jordumb ranting at dr. Fauci
what a disingenuous ignorant fool so any of the ridiculous BS about vaccines I guess is to be expected
I will take “chance” against the paranoia when the alternative is a fair chance of a debilitating disease or death for me and/or others
uncle frogy
Even if this was a vaccine that DID integrate DNA into your cell’s genomes, unless you got that shot right in your gonads you aren’t passing any of that on to your children.
Silly PZ. It is the alien-tech computer chips in the vaccine that will reprogram the DNA, by assembling nanotech from the substances in the blood.
Eventually, the vaccinated people will be re-created inside out as pod people, without even passing a pod stage.
Those reptilian shape-shifters are very clever.
Paradoxically, the stuff from the chemtrails may have a protective effect, as different branches of the illuminati don’t talk with each other.
He says that like it is a bad thing.
Whatever I/we are, is far better than an anti-vaxxer.
nomdeplume @ 23
That only works before they complete their metamorphosis. Like that indestructible alien bounty hunter in The X File.
That really is the most amazing technical leap involved in these mRNA vaccines, not the mRNA itself. Formulating the lipid envelopes, managing the packaging of the mRNA in them, then delivering that in a form that can be transported and injected (even if it takes some serious cold storage to transport) is a leap forward that will have implications far beyond just this set of vaccines. It opens up a whole new way to create and deliver vaccines to our cells, which could have all kinds of useful applications in the future.
Rich Woods@11
Well, OK I guess it depends on which is the Rube Goldberg part of the system. In fact, using flowers to attract bees and spreading seeds in bird droppings is pretty crazy. I was thinking of plants’ ability to collect abundant energy instead of stealing it from somebody else. Anyway, plants are lot quieter and it’s easier to get them to stay still for a picture. (Exceptions are out there I’m sure.)
PaulBC @ 31 “exceptions are out there I’m sure”
Yes, my triffids are problematic. And forget using them as bonsai trees.
.
PaulBC @4 Since fungi are parasitic we may have more affinity with them…
PaulBC @31: Genesis warned us about heracleum mantegazzianum.
re plants:
Look up hyperaccumulators — there’s a prospect for phytomining, especially in waste sites.
Different time scales — they may be sessile, but they fight (even seek) each other and contend rather fiercely. There’s some most remarkable footage to be found.
That’s not completely true. LINEs are spreading in the human genome by their own reverse transcriptase and may contribute to insert Sars-Cov2 cDNA into the human genome and there is some evidence that this is actually happening.
Still, this will at the most interfere with the fate of the affected individual only since it is unlikely that anything like this will happen in the the germ line. And even if it is unlikely that it will matter because it will most likely happen in parts of the genome where it doesn’t matter. And if the fragment ends up in some functionally important part of the genome there is still selection and drift that will deal with it. Thus, it is quite sone way for a virus to create anything close to a new human species. If inserted in the genome of the germline the most likely outcome for viral sequences that have not evolved for being inserted in the host’s genome is to become junk DNA like all the SINEs, LINEs, transposons and endogenous retroviral sequences we carry around for millions of years.
I have an acquaintance (definitely not a friend) who insists that mRNA is a drug. He says that it will get you hooked. You will need to have a periodic fix or very bad things will happen to you. He doesn’t say what bad things, but I think he has heroin withdrawal in mind. I’m an earth sciences guy, so my knowledge of RNA is limited, but I attempted to explain to him that this is not a drug. But, yes, I admit you may need a periodic booster to keep up with mutations in the coronavirus. That, for him, is all he needed to hear to say “Ah-hah! I’m right.”
@36 Maybe he’s confusing it with MDMA (ecstasy)?
@31, Plant kludges “depends on which is the Rube Goldberg part of the system.”
Rube Goldberg’s contraptions were essentially mechanical. Hence, one should look for the (presumably tiny) gears, boots-on-sticks, sleeping opossums, bow-and-arrow, etc, etc, to find the “Rube Goldberg part of the system.” Perhaps the best method is to look for a proxy, such the Maxwell Daemons who build & start the plant’s particular contraption.
blf@38 Venus flytraps are at least somewhat mechanical. I think a lot of seed dispersal methods qualify as Rube Goldberg in the level of indirection. I still think plants on average make much better companions.