How technology and mRNA vaccines can use humans as computers

Messenger RNA vaccines (mRNA) are some of the first COVID-19 vaccines authorized for use in many countries. This technology of vaccine is a new type of vaccine to protect against infectious diseases. Thus, it is important to understand the depth of COVID-19 pandemic with specific data, as something critical for everyone.

   Taking United States as an example, each year 650,000 people die from heart disease, 600,000 from cancer, 160,000 from accidents, 160,000 from chronic lower respiratory diseases, 120,000 from Alzheimer, 85,000 from diabetes, 55,000 from influenza and pneumonia, and so on. This year, 2020, with strict and universal measures such as multiple-month lockdowns, United States count more than 330,000 deaths already. So, yes, this pandemic is here, dramatic, and the scientific community must respond.

   According to the American Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to trigger an immune response, many vaccines put a weakened or inactivated germ into our bodies. However, mRNA vaccines use a different and critical method. They teach human cells how to make a protein or even just a piece of a protein that triggers an immune response inside the human body, thus producing antibodies.

   There are two key conditions that we must know before any massive vaccination. At first, officials say that mRNA never enters the nucleus of the cell, which is where our DNA (genetic material) is kept. On the contrary, the cell breaks down and gets rid of the mRNA soon after it is finished using the instructions.

   The other important fact is that mRNA vaccines do not use the live virus that causes COVID-19. Particularly, COVID-19 mRNA vaccines give instructions for our cells to make a harmless piece of what is called the spike protein (the latter is found on the surface of the virus that causes COVID-19). We could say that technology give us an opportunity to teach our bodies something without the need to getting sick with the virus first.

   Researchers have been studying and working with mRNA vaccines for decades, though the mRNA vaccines will be used for the first time in human history in that large scale of application. Interest has grown for them because of the volume of infected people with COVID-19, and the fast pace that humanity must produce a vaccine, as they can be developed in a laboratory using readily available materials, which is faster than traditional methods.

   But is it safe? Many officials say yes, other say no. In any case, future mRNA vaccine technology may allow for one vaccine to provide protection for multiple diseases. This is interesting, but at the same time it raises concerns regarding the method that this technology can be used for other types of exploitation.

   Who will control the mRNA technology? Are official authorities able to control such fast pace developments? Can we stop any kind of virus without this technology? Indeed, the human body will be used as a place where scientists can teach and control its usability like they do with machines.

   Artificial intelligence is coming fast. Knowledge gained from last decades must be consumed by new markets. For instance, human trials of cancer vaccines using the same mRNA technology have been taking place since at least 2011. Hopefully, a pandemic event will not trigger a new world in which people cannot trust each other. An accelerated timeline can generate many side effects; thus, scientists must do their best to defend such technologies and help people trust them.

   It is important to note that during global health emergencies, the World Health Organization (WHO) Emergency Use Listing Procedure (EUL) may be used to allow emergency use of the vaccine. Particularly, the EUL is a fast-tracked but rigorous process designed to bring impactful products to all those in need, as quickly as possible, on a time-limited basis and based on a risk-versus-benefit evaluation.

   Furthermore, WHO mentions that in the search for a COVID-19 vaccine, researchers and developers are working on several different phases in parallel, to speed up results. It is the scale of the financial and political commitments to the development of a vaccine that has allowed this accelerated development to take place. And this is critical! So, do we need a pandemic event to develop and implement such technology? Humanity must reinvent ways of wealth distribution, because in some cases we must not follow the creative destruction method on human body.