Podcast Episode: Curtis Chang and David French | Christians and the Vaccine

[T_aquaticus]

@SarahM

Because the mRNA (from my knowledge) is new and we have not done long term testing, it makes me hesitant to run out and get a shot. I am not opposed, but I am concerned.

mRNA has been tested in eukaryotic cells for hundreds of millions of years. It seems to be safe. Just as a reminder, nearly all of your cells have mRNA in them right now. Also, the half life of mRNA molecules is a few hours to a few days, so I don’t see how there could be any long term effects.

It is also worth noting that the SARS-CoV-2 virus itself is an RNA virus. It injects RNA into your cells, and a lot of that RNA is made into mRNA. The difference between the virus and the vaccine is that the virus contains many different mRNA’s while the vaccine has just one of those viral mRNA’s. Chances are you will either get the vaccine or the virus at some point, and the vaccine seems like a much safer choice. The antibodies you would produce as a reaction to the vaccine are among the same that you would produce as a result of an infection.

@SarahM

I know statistically, I would more than likely be fine, but when there is a risk, I am wanting full informed consent. I do not do well when people just say “get the shot”.

The risk from the virus is much, much higher and it doesn’t ask for consent. Food for thought.

@SarahM

And with my gene mutation of mthfr that predisposes me to blood clots, is a concern.

As mentioned elsewhere, there is no known blood clot risk with the mRNA vaccine. The viral vector based vaccines have been linked to a very low risk of blood clots, but not the mRNA vaccine.

[T_aquaticus]

@Mervin_Bitikofer

I think we’re enough months (and millions of fully vaccinated people) in by now, that if the vaccine had any bad effect on fertility - it would have been huge news by now. Not that there was ever any significant risk of this. I do remember reading at one point that even among the testing trials there were some who got pregnant after being vaccinated. If there are infertility problems today (which I wouldn’t be surprised to hear) … I predict that statistics will show that problem as having emerged already well before the pandemic was on the scene.

Infertility problems should have shown up at the beginning of the pandemic since the virus was injecting people with the mRNA for spike protein, just like the vaccine.