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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Fritz the Cat" data-source="post: 331288" data-attributes="member: 605">West Nile and Zika viruses are mosquito borne and the major funding went that direction. Midge bites are not known YET to make people sick or kill humans YET. If it happens, watch the funding shift.Midge like most things have DNA with several strands of genetic code and single strands of RNA or ribonucleic acid, a nucleic acid present in all living cells. Its principal role is to act as a messenger carrying instructions from DNA for controlling the synthesis of proteins, although in some viruses RNA carries the genetic information.Proteins, spike proteins, messenger RNA, where have we heard all this before? <a href="https://www.modernatx.com/modernas-mrna-technology" target="_blank">mRNA Technology: A New Approach to Medicine - Moderna (modernatx.com)</a>[h=2]How is mRNA used in COVID-19 vaccines?[/h]Everything that has been said here doesn’t just apply to humans. Other organisms, including <a href="https://www.dictionary.com/browse/bacteria" target="_blank">bacteria</a> and viruses, also have DNA and/or RNA. The recent COVID-19 vaccines actually use mRNA from the virus itself in a rather sneaky way.Usually, a vaccine uses a weakened or damaged version of a virus so that your body can have a “practice run” of fighting it. Your body will make antibodies that fight this weak form of the virus and thus will be able to recognize this same virus in the future and be able to quickly react to the real virus if ever exposed to it.An mRNA vaccine works differently. Rather than inject a person with the actual virus, this type of vaccine instead injects the cells with some of the virus’s mRNA. This mRNA contains instructions on how to build “spike protein,” meaning the protein that is found on the spiky surface of a virus. This protein is harmless and has no ill effects on the body.So, your cells will begin making this harmless spike protein. Your <a href="https://www.dictionary.com/browse/immune-system#" target="_blank">immune system</a> will then recognize that this spike protein doesn’t belong in your body and make <a href="https://www.dictionary.com/browse/antibody" target="_blank">antibodies</a> designed to destroy it. Making a long story short, this means your body will be able to recognize the spike proteins used by the actual virus. As a result, your immune system will immediately be able to make antibodies that swarm and kill the virus if it ever detects the spike protein in the body.Luckily, you don’t have to become an expert in macromolecules for your body to function—or the vaccine to do its job. Your body automatically performs the complex functions described here to keep you alive. (Perhaps mastering some of the key terms associated with them is the least you could do!) <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> </li> </ul></blockquote>

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