A comprehensive review found that mRNA vaccines — a popular target of viral vaccine conspiracy theories and medical misinformation in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic — are a resoundingly safe and effective feat of modern medicine.
Published this week in the journal The Lancet, the review confirmed that mRNA vaccines are robustly effective at preventing the spread of infectious diseases like COVID, and show incredible promise for treating diseases like cancer as well. It was conducted by an international team of researchers based in Canada, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, and the United States, and took the drug’s manufacturing, clinical trials, and data from billions of real-world vaccinations into account.
“mRNA vaccines represent a transformative advance in vaccinology,” reads the study, “combining rapid development timelines, scalable manufacturing, and strong immunogenicity with a favorable safety profile.”
The study’s results also dispel the erroneous notion that mRNA vaccines alter human DNA. Instead, as intended, mRNA vaccines provide human cells with what’s basically a limited set of instructions that allow them to momentarily — and safely — replicate a given virus or disease, allowing the body to develop an immune response.
