I’m Not Really Keen On Getting A COVID-19 Vaccine. Here’s Why.

How do we make sense of what’s going on with the vaccines that are being developed?

There is much hype about all the COVID-19 vaccines that are being prepared. Wherever they are coming from… there is much hope that at least one of them will be useful in halting or ending the COVID-19 pandemic. As more of these vaccines get approved, countries such as Singapore and Indonesia are offering to provide them free of charge to their citizens, even though there can be a risk of developing an allergic reaction to the vaccine.

The central question behind the vaccine is, after all the hype, smoke and dust have settled: what on earth does a vaccine do?

What a vaccine does contain

According to the World Health Organization,

Vaccines contain weakened or inactive parts of a particular organism (antigen) that triggers an immune response within the body. Newer vaccines contain the blueprint for producing antigens rather than the antigen itself. Regardless of whether the vaccine is made up of the antigen itself or the blueprint so that the body will produce the antigen, this weakened version will not cause the disease in the person receiving the vaccine, but it will prompt their immune system to respond much as it would have on its first reaction to the actual pathogen.

Some vaccines require multiple doses, given weeks or months apart. This is sometimes needed to allow for the production of long-lived antibodies and development of memory cells. In this way, the body is trained to fight the specific disease-causing organism, building up memory of the pathogen so as to rapidly fight it if and when exposed in the future.

For the COVID-19 coronavirus particles, the vaccine contains inactivated fragments of their messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) identifier strands:

The vaccines contain synthetic mRNA, which is genetic information used to make the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. The spike protein is the part of the virus that attaches to human cells. The spike protein alone cannot cause COVID-19. Once the spike protein is created it causes the immune system to make antibodies against the virus. These antibodies can the provide protection if a person comes into contact with the virus. The mRNA vaccines are noninfectious and do not enter the human cell nucleus so it cannot be inserted into human DNA. Additionally, mRNA is rapidly broken down, and this theoretically reduces chances for long term side effects.

The assumption behind this entire sequence of events is that the immune system can create antibodies that can hopefully detect the actual mRNA of the virus that creates the spike protein, such that the immune system is able to respond adequately and tag the virus for destruction.

The problem with this assumption is that it assumes that our immune system is capable of destroying all this RNA rapidly.

Because let’s face the elephant in the room: all these studies about the vaccines only focus about the immune system generating the necessary antibodies to tag the virus, and we then assume that the destruction is rapid.

But what if the destruction is slower than expected?

Because no one has marketed (or hyped up) the mechanism for RNA destruction, and that depends on how well the macrophages in the immune system are primed to destroy the RNA based on the antibodies tagging the viral particles.

There is a sequential step of events occurring when a virus infects our bodies:

1. The virus gains entry into the body.

2. The virus infects a cell and reprogrammes it to only produce copies of the virus RNA/DNA strands. These virus copies can then proceed to infect other healthy cells and amplify the effects of virus multiplication exponentially.

3. Infected cells continue producing virus copies, until antibodies tag the infected cells as infected and programme them to commit suicide via apoptosis.

4. These dead cells send out signals to phagocyte cells so that the phagocytes can find them, engulf them and digest them up. This process is known as phagocytosis. The digested RNA/DNA strands are broken back down into their constituent nucleic acids so that new cells can be synthesised to replace the dead ones.

5. Signals in the form of pro-inflammatory cytokines can also be sent out to kill these infected cells by force if the rate of phagocytosis is less than the rate of infection. Too many infected or apoptotic cells aren’t good for our health.

When we’re making a false assumption that the immune system can eliminate all these DNA/RNA strands rapidly, then problems will start to appear when we focus only on the antibody-generating part.

Sure, we do need the antibodies to tag the invaders… but that isn’t all there is to it.

What we need, too, is the ability of the immune system to decompose these invaders down to their constituent nucleic acids rapidly via the process of autophagy, just so that the body can reuse them to synthesise new DNA strands for new cells.

The Clearance Mechanism Behind Dead Cells In Our Body.

And unfortunately, many people have impaired clearance/autophagy mechanisms, which slow down the removal rate of these invaders, leading to an accumulation of these critters in the body, which then results in the generation of the dreaded pro-inflammatory cytokine signals, translating further on into potential cytokine storms and death.

These people include those with neurodegenerative disorders, heart disease, Type 2 diabetes and obesity…

Isn’t that rocket science now? These are the very same groups of people who are more likely to die from severe complications brought about by a COVID-19 infection.

Unfortunately, we cannot control autophagy that easily

We can control antibody production levels in the body better, and that translates into easier dollars for Big Pharma vaccines.

We can control virus replication rates better, and that translates into easier dollars for Big Pharma drugs such as remdesivir.

But if we could stimulate or prime the immune system’s autophagy response even better to detect and eliminate those threats as rapidly as they ought to be eliminated?

It doesn’t make that much money, unfortunately, because a lot of it boils down to lifestyle choices!

What we eat, our sleep quality, our exercise intensity and frequency, as well as our stress management. Our lifestyle choices DO matter!

Four Ways That Poor Lifestyle Choices Can Affect Our Health In The Long Term

But as a result of all the hype about COVID-19 vaccines…

Do bear in mind that a lot of that marketing hype for the vaccines is meant to be a gold mine for Big Pharma.

Supporting one’s immune system functions is key, as I do highlight in Nutrients That Support A Healthy Immune System.