If I get COVID, my chance of dying or getting post-COVID syndrome seems very low, since I'm young and healthy, and post-COVID syndrome is very rare.
Mortality is rare in young and fit people, but it certainly is not zero. Even a mortality risk of 0.01% is a far greater risk than anything posed by this vaccine. We don't have full data on so called "long COVID" yet, but it seems far more common than we think. In previous SARS infections, up to 30% of people still had symptoms beyond 3 years which were severe enough to preclude working and affect what is known as "activities of daily living" (showering, dressing, cooking). With COVID, current data estimate around 10% of people in the 18-49 age group are experiencing long term symptoms, and up to 25% of over 70s. This is completely separate from the well document long term sequelae of any severe illness or intensive care admission.
Personally, also being young and healthy, I put any risk from this vaccine as much smaller than the risk posed by a COVID infection, even a mild one.
- What else is in the vaccine other than mRNA? Presumably there are some preservatives and binders; how much testing has been done on those in other vaccines? How does the non-mRNA stuff compare to the flu vaccine, for example?
See page 11 of
https://www.fda.gov/media/144245/downloadThere are some lipid molecules to keep the RNA in solution, some sodium and potassium salts to regulate the pH, and sucrose (a sugar molecule) which helps to protect the RNA whilst frozen. Nothing worrisome in the slightest. No preservatives or adjuvants (not that these are worrisome in other vaccines).
- How exactly do they produce the mRNA? I'd guess that they genetically modified some bacteria or yeast to produce it, but I don't know.
It's entirely synthetic. The reaction involves the template DNA, some of the appropriate polymerase enzyme, and the necessary nucleoside triphosphates (the building blocks of RNA). No bacteria or yeast involved.
- I know that the mRNA should not normally integrate into your DNA, but what if you have some reverse transcriptase floating around from another virus? Is it possible, and would it be harmful?
No, it's not possible. Reverse transcriptases do not function on any random mRNA they find, and need specific instructions on the relevant piece of mRNA, which do not exist in the case of this vaccine. Even if it somehow could, all that would happen is the cell would produce more spike protein before being killed anyway by your immune system. If you are interested, there is a good article about this here, although it is quite technical for the lay person:
https://www.deplatformdisease.com/blog/no-really-mrna-vaccines-are-not-going-to-affect-your-dna - I'm not sure, but maybe you're going to get quite a large amount of spike protein floating around inside of you, since each bit of mRNA can (I think) cause your body to produce many copies of spike protein. In other words, the total amount of foreign material that will be in your body is far more than the contents of the syringe. Is it possibly harmful to have so much spike protein in you? Could it destroy important cells? Could it accumulate in tissues and then cause problems later, maybe long after the vaccine?
Each piece of mRNA can be taken up by a single cell, and that cell will produce spike protein for a limited amount of time before the mRNA breaks down. The spike proteins are incorporated in to the cell membrane and presented to the immune cells - they are not released in to the general circulation. Cells which have presented the spike protein will be killed by your immune system. Also worth pointing out that anyone who has had a COVID infection (even if asymptomatic) will have been exposed to far greater quantities of spike protein than will be produced from this vaccine.
- DNA/RNA has a tendency to experience random mutation through exposure to light, temperature, etc. How likely is it that some mRNA in the vaccine will mutate into something really harmful?
Mutations in the RNA happen when it is being transcribed, not when it is inert or being translated to protein.
With FDA approval, looks like I'll be vaccinated before Christmas. Can't wait!