By Mark DaCosta- On October 2, the Nobel Committee affirmed a fact that had already been established by countless studies – mRNA vaccines were effective in saving tens of millions of lives during the COVID-19 pandemic. The recognition by the Nobel Assembly adds one of the loudest voices yet to refute the unfounded, harmful conspiracy theories regarding mRNA vaccines. The Nobel Assembly has effectively affirmed the safety of mRNA vaccines.
The committee released the following statement:
Press release
2023-10-02
The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institute has today [Monday, October 2, 2023] decided to award the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly to Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman for their discoveries concerning nucleoside base modifications that enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19.
The discoveries by the two Nobel Laureates were critical for developing effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 during the pandemic that began in early 2020. Through their groundbreaking findings, which have fundamentally changed our understanding of how mRNA interacts with our immune system, the laureates contributed to the unprecedented rate of vaccine development during one of the greatest threats to human health in modern times.”
The recognition by the Nobel Assembly adds one of the loudest voices yet to unfounded, harmful conspiracy theories regarding mRNA vaccines.
All vaccines are intended to stimulate the body’s immune system to produce a response to a disease. Before the invention of mRNA (messenger ribonucleic acid) technology, however, vaccines depended on whole disease-causing germs to be grown in cell cultures. This is a time-consuming process that limited how fast vaccines could be manufactured.
However, mRNA vaccines are produced by taking a small piece of the germ and causing it to be carried into a cell. Because the mRNA molecules do not enter cell nuclei, they cannot alter cellular DNA. This is a key bit of misinformation that is being peddled by anti-vaxxer conspiracy theorists.
What the Nobel prize winners did was figure out a way to produce and use mRNA fragments without producing an inflammatory response in cells, while stimulating a robust immune response.
The Nobel Assembly also commented on the future potential of the technology. The committee stated the following:
“The impressive flexibility and speed with which mRNA vaccines can be developed pave the way for using the new platform also for vaccines against other infectious diseases. In the future, the technology may also be used to deliver therapeutic proteins and treat some cancer types.”
