Covid-19 Vaccine: Engineered & Synthesized

Vaccine technology has dramatically shifted from the manipulation of a virus to foster immunity, to now what is called gene therapy.  Much concern has been expressed about this new technology, does it change one's genetic code, what are the long term effects given no long term studies have been done, and since a vaccinated individual can become infected with Covid-19, what is the purpose of getting one?  Even though this is new technology we are assured it is safe and can be given repeatedly.  Are technocrats and scientists just messing with God's creation of humans?

While there are claims that the Covid-19 vaccine is not gene therapy, in looking at the scientific literature it is described as just that.  Even this article describes one vaccine as using "double-stranded DNA inserted into a common, but inert virus called an adenovirus.  This DNA also contains the instructions for building the spike protein.  Once inside the cell, these instructions are read and translated into mRNA (messenger RNA)."  It goes on, "The mRNA chains are basically work orders that spell out the instructions for making the spike proteins that stud the outside of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19."  Ok, both genetic materials, DNA and mRNA, are being used.  In the case of one Covid-19 vaccine, the spike protein of the Covid-19 virus is used to drive "into the host cell the genetic information needed to express the recombinant antigen" which evokes an immune response.  It just leaves out one detail, that mRNA genetic material is synthetic.

Being a highly technical and very complicated process, most of the nuances are not discussed here.  The focus will be just on the issue of this vaccine actually being an engineered and synthetically produced product.  Links to the scientific information discussing this are provided for those who want to do a deeper dive.
 
Historically, it takes years to create a vaccine with many stages in the process.  In the case of the Covid-19 vaccine it took less than one year.   The virus is inactivated or weakened in traditional vaccines, and is called an antigen because it evokes an immune response.  However, the Covid-19 mRNA vaccine is a Nucleic acid vaccine where a strand of a corona virus DNA is used to make a template that is engineered for the mRNA, which does the same, evokes an immune response. 
 
The complete process in this is far more complicated than what is explained here but through an engineering technique called a reverse genetic system, it is "genetically engineering specific nucleic acid sequences (within DNA or RNA)."  More simply, a DNA sequence from a Covid-19 virus strand is used.  DNA sequence information is readily available to technocrats through GenBank among many other available genome data sources.  As of May, 2020 "more than 200 complete and partial genome sequences of SARS-CoV-2" were decoded and deposited in the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data.  Scientists can easily pick and choose from these sources for vaccine experimentation.

Through a process called In vitro transcription (IVT), encoded information in the spike protein DNA is taken and encoded into mRNA, synthetically creating the spike protein, which produces the viral antigen.  Using IVT to make the genetic copy for a Nucleic acid vaccine, mRNA "can be manufactured rapidly at large scale" using a "synthetic mRNA format".  "Synthetic mRNA" vaccines are considered "safer" than the more traditional attenuated virus vaccines while even claiming it will "bring a halt to the coronavirus pandemic."  Because it is synthetic it is easy to design, and can be manufactured at great speed for vaccine development.

In these engineered vaccines the SARS-CoV-2 S protein, called the "spike protein" and found in corona viruses, is targeted as the one which causes Covid-19.  It "is an important target site for neutralizing antibodies and a key target for vaccine design."  1286 amino acids make up the spike protein sequence while genomic data of the virus is shared worldwide.  This amino acid sequence was aligned with other coronavirus structural proteins, with concern about how this would work in future mutations.

There continues to be controversy as to whether or not an actual Covid-19 virus has been isolated, however the SARS-CoV-2 proteins share high similarity to SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV which contributed to the development of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine design.  Interestingly, through Covid-19 DNA protein manipulation several vaccines were tested.

Once the DNA or RNA sequence of a virus is known it becomes a rapid way in which to engineer a synthetic vaccine.  Being a messenger RNA, this engineered vaccine alerts our immune system to produce a specific antibody to the virus, just as the virus itself would do.  Post injection the mRNA material itself hangs around long enough to evoke an immune response then disintegrates.  By all reports this occurs within just a few days.

These "computer-driven strategies" create "a synthetic vaccine...consisting mainly of synthetic peptides".  These vaccines produced by "chemical synthesis" are considered safer "because they do not involve cell-derived material or biological processes for production. Their purity can be controlled".  "Creating vaccines synthetically...has the ability to increase the speed of production and to retune and fine tune the solution to combat new variations in pathogens."  "Synthetic vaccines also have the advantage that they can be seen as cartridge vaccines, meaning that they contain bits and pieces that can readily be replaced by others to update the vaccine in order to combat new strains of pathogen."  In other words, DNA strands can easily be manipulated with different protein structures, an advantage to created vaccines for future mutations.
 
Without going into the specifics on vectors, Johnson & Johnson and Oxford-AstraZeneca are DNA/Viral-vector vaccines which deliver the spike protein DNA material into the cells.  Pfizer and Moderna are mRNA vaccines.  The introduction of these genetic materials causes the cell to create the viral antigen.  Regardless, both are gene therapy in that engineered, synthetic genetic viral material is introduced into the human cell to make the viral spike protein.  This video is short, explains the immune system, traditional vaccines, and this new gene therapy.  Rather than the virus injecting its RNA into a cell to make copies of it, through mRNA vaccines this viral  process is replaced synthetically to create an immune response as explained in this video.  The synthetically created Covid-19 RNA is telling the cell genetically to produce the spike protein, clearly a form of gene therapy.

Up to this point, it is now understood that selected DNA from the virus is used to make synthetic mRNA that is carried into the cell, evoking an immune response.  But the beauty in all of this, since the viral genetic component can be picked over, copied, and manufactured, it is possible to "tweak' the genetic sequence in any new mutation.  As a result, new vaccines can be made just as rapidly by altering the protein sequence to match the mutated variant.  Regardless, these technocrats conclude that vaccine development will continue until more clinical trials are completed and that "the first round of vaccines will have waning immunity and require boosting using improved second-generation COVID-19 vaccines"...with those who have recovered from COVID-19 with poor or waning immunity may also require vaccination".

As the second concerning mutation has emerged, Omicron, the reality is that there are "thousands of mutations" that have accumulated.  Even a local doctor predicts this virus will continue with mutations.  Is this the cart before the horse or the other way around?  Are these mRNA vaccines created because of the ability to manipulate them for any virus thus creating more experimentation and unending profit, or are the viruses being used to create more vaccines that come to the same end? 

The major pharmaceutical companies making these vaccines, Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson are all World Economic Forum (WEF) members.  WEF is thrilled to see this new technology as part of its 4th Industrial Revolution to change our healthcare but doesn't see it replacing other vaccines, yet, in its ongoing move towards genomics.  After all, the "ability to manipulate genes is in its infancy."  Even the WEF recognizes "These instructions teach our cells to become their own vaccine manufacturing plants."  Does that not imply this is a genetic restructuring of our cells?  As part of its corporatism plan, one could conjecture that someday the only option for vaccination provided to the masses will be these gene therapy experiments, whether wanted or not.

As explained in the video in this WEF article within the first ten minutes, synthetic biology, which includes mRNA vaccines, is bringing together individuals with expertise in biology, engineering, computer science, social sciences, and humanities to collectively trying to make biology easier to engineer, enabling the design and re-design of systems using the building blocks (DNA) of life.  It is also programming functions in DNA and using new engineering tools in learning to engineer life.  And mRNA vaccines are part of that engineering.  The WEF has put together a Global Future Council on Synthetic Biology just for the purpose of engineering life.  If it is too unbelievable, keep in mind it is currently being done through vaccines and will soon invade other aspects of life.

Corporations are entering a dangerous area here, using humans and nature as lab rats, perhaps falsely believing help is on the way for mankind.  As the old saying goes, It's not nice to fool Mother Nature, she is smarter than you think.  As a society based on the foundation of Christian principles attention needs to be paid to the direction we are being taken, starting with these vaccines.