Does covid vaccine produce antibodies

amother

Sun, Dec 06 2020, 11:32 am

This is a serious inquiry. Please don't yell.

I understand that the mRna vaccine works differently than the standard vaccines. All vaccinations in use today, basically inject inactivated virus (besides the live vaccines) which causes the body to produce antibodies.

The mRna vaccines basically destroy the arrow leading to the cell. Pfizer and Moderna both claim that the vaccine doesn't prevent getting coronavirus, just that symptoms will be weaker.

If only the arrow to the cell gets destroyed, basically preventing the virus from entering, how does the body develop immunity?

One if the reasons mentioned for using this method of vaccine is because this will make it effective for mutations of coronavirus as well.

On a spin off here, someone quoted Pfizer researchers that claim the vaccines are too dangerous because people who had the vaccine and then get coronavirus , get it worse and may suffer worse consequences. They quote a study done on cats that got the vaccine and when they subsequently got coronavirus, all died.

So, now, I'm really confused. Does this vaccine only destroy the access to the cell for the virus and make symptoms weaker? Does it cause antibodies? How does it actually work?

Btw, this post should probably be in vaccination forum. I just posted new on the spin off post because I didn't want to derail that post.

Mommyg8

Sun, Dec 06 2020, 12:31 pm

The Hamodia had an article last week interviewing someone who was part of the trial period for the Covid vaccine. It was a very interesting article, and to answer your question, when he went to test his blood for antibodies the lab called and wondered what happened because he had five times the amount of antibodies than was typical. (This was after the vaccine).

ggdm

Mon, Dec 07 2020, 6:07 am

This is not how the mRNA vaccines work.

The goal of any vaccine is to train your immune system to recognize the virus and build antibodies. Conventional vaccines do this by injecting a weaker or dead version of the virus. The new mRNA vaccine injects RNA which causes your own cells to produce a protein that resembles part of the virus (the spike protein). The immune system reacts the same way. The difference is just how the "virus" gets there. The RNA disintegrates after a few days and the cells stop creating the protein. I don't know what "arow to the cell" can mean, I don't see a connection to mRNA vaccines.

There are viruses that are worse when you get them the second time (dengue fever). Sars-Cov2 seems not to be one of those. This was concern at the start of the pandemic, but it seems it was unfounded. Even if it were true for cats and Covid (which I don't think it is) - humans are very different from cats.

The vaccines currently under investigation (Moderna and Biontech/Pfizer) definitely produce antibodies (or they wouldn't have left phase 2 tests). The people with the vaccine get sick significantly less than without as shown by preliminary phase 3 trials. Details are unclear: For how long does it work, do they prevent transmission, do they prevent infection or only serious illness, what about different groups like the elderly, ...

All of this will get clearer when the results of phase 3 are investigated in more detail.

I can provide links, if you want. I just have to search something accessible in English.

Disclaimer: I am a computer scientist, but have friends at a different vaccine company.