SUBJ: COVID vaccine information
SUBtitle: What happens if you get COVID
A friend told me a friend was not getting vaccinated because the vaccine contained genetically engineered DNA, or genetically engineered organisms. THAT IS FALSE. The Pfizer vaccine is made of a piece of RNA coated with types of 4 lipid (fat) molecules. While DNA is a long-lasting stable molecule, RNA breaks down in minutes. When you get vaccinated, the lipid-coated RNA is taken into your cells, codes for a protein, and then the RNA is broken down, just like thousands of RNA molecules every one of your cells make constantly to make the proteins that make your body function. Since the protein made by the vaccine RNA is different from your normal proteins, it causes an immune response, so you produce antibodies that will destroy that protein when it is encountered in the future. The antibody is produced by your cells of your immune system, mainly B- and T-cells. Some of these are memory cells, which remember how to make antibodies to destroy that protein if it is encountered in the future.
However, those memory cells slowly decrease, so you have a weaker response if you encounter the COVID virus, which has that protein the immune cells respond to. They decrease especially quickly in older people. As we age, all of us have weaker immune systems. But the booster just authorized for older people in the US increases the number of immune cells to COVID as much as 10 fold. I got mine the first day they were authorized, as teaching high school I am around a lot of kids, many not vaccinated.
If you are not vaccinated: I just read in the New Yorker, that younger people who are not vaccinated may get COVID, and develop long COVID, which lasts a life time. Possible effects of long COVID the article listed include losing your teeth, erectile dysfuntion, and becoming too weak to play sports or work out. The article recommends that people who are not getting vaccinated should be informed about those possible consequences.
