COVID-19 may no longer be a pandemic, but it’s pretty nasty even as an endemic disease, and the rates of hospitalizations have been rising around the country for the last couple months — around 29,000 last week, in fact. If you haven’t gotten the updated vaccine, you should definitely do so. (That includes your kids!) The currently dominant subvariant, JN.1, might actually be a bit more able than previous variants to infect already-vaccinated people, but the good-ish news is that, according to the US Centers for Disease Control, there’s “no evidence that JN.1 presents an increased risk to public health relative to other currently circulating variants.”
In addition to the current spike in cases, new data from the CDC show that long COVID doesn’t only cause debilitating symptoms like fatigue, lung and heart problems, and the like, but also that more than 5,000 Americans have died from the effects of long COVID.
Naturally, there’s always someone to make matters worse. In this case, it’s Dr. Joseph Ladapo, the anti-vaccine quack Ron DeSantis appointed as Florida Surgeon General to appeal to MAGA idiots who believe every healthcare conspiracy story out there. This week, Ladapo called for ending the use of mRNA-based COVID vaccines — the two most effective vaccines, from Pfizer and Moderna — because he believes absolutely unfounded claims that they’ll corrupt and impurify our precious bodily fluids.
First off, let’s do a quick explainer on how the vaccines work. To get it right, we’ll borrow this short explanation from the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, which heads off some of the very nonsense Ladapo is spreading.
Traditional vaccines put a weakened or inactivated germ into our bodies. Messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines, like the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines, teach cells how to make a protein that triggers an immune response if someone gets infected. When the vaccine is injected into the upper arm, the mRNA enters cells near the site of the injection and tells the cells to start making the same protein that is found in the COVID-19 virus. The immune system recognizes this protein and begins producing antibodies that can fight the virus if the vaccinated person is later infected.
None of the vaccines interact with or alter your DNA in any way, and therefore cannot cause cancer. MRNA is not the same as DNA and cannot be combined with DNA to change your genetic code. The mRNA is fragile and it delivers the instructions to your cells to make antibodies against SARS-CoV-2. The mRNA does not enter the nucleus of the cell — the part that contains your DNA. Therefore, there is no truth to the myth that somehow the mRNA vaccine could inactivate the genes that suppress tumors.
For an even more detailed explanation of how the vaccines work, this Scientific American piece goes into greater detail, explaining the multiple defenses our cells have that would prevent anything from an mRNA vaccine from getting anywhere near the cell nucleus or mucking around with the DNA there.
Anti-vaxxers like Ladapo seize on the fact that genetic stuff is involved to spread unfounded fear about the mRNA vaccines; his bulletin claims that the vaccines “pose a unique and heightened risk of DNA integration into human cells,” which he claims might cause cancer. Well, nah, as the explainer above makes clear: The mRNA never gets anywhere near the nucleus of your cells, so no, Dr. Ladapo, you are a lying liar.
Dr. Paul Offitt, the director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, told Scientific American that even Ladapo’s preferred alternative, the Novavax vaccine that works more like other vaccines,
is grown in moth cells—which also contain DNA. “The minute you say the word DNA, people think, ‘Oh, my God, there’s DNA in this? Is that going to affect my DNA?’” Offit says. “But you have better chance of becoming Spider-Man” than being harmed by DNA from the COVID vaccines.
Now that’s a disappointment. Now we’ll all have to find other ways of gaining superpowers, like lollygagging around nuclear test sites.
Ladapo, we should also remind you, is not a guy with a lot of credibility on viruses, COVID, or vaccines, either. He only has his Florida job because during the pandemic he was a frequent Fox News guest spreading misinformation about COVID and the vaccines. He was a member of the crazy anti-science group “America’s Frontline Doctors,” which promoted the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine as a “cure” for COVID (it is not). Yes, that’s the bunch whose leader frets about demon jizz, vaccines made from space alien DNA, and world leaders replaced by blood-drinking clones. (To be fair, if Ladapo shares those scientific beliefs, he hasn’t said so in public.)
Ladapo refused to wear a mask while meeting with a state legislator who told him her immune system was compromised while she was undergoing cancer treatment. He also advised young men to avoid the COVID vaccine — and then later the booster. Then we found out that his first recommendation against the vaccine was based on data that he had “personally altered” in an already-dubious study. The best you can say about Ladapo’s scientific bona fides is that he somehow graduated from Harvard’s medical school before going nuts.
After his announcement that no one should get the mRNA vaccines because he agrees with conspiracy theories from Facebook, Ladapo spent some quality time with medical expert Steve Bannon so he could spread his pseudo-scientific nonsense more widely:
Bannon certainly knows his audience, acknowledging that mainstream media and medical experts will call this dangerous nonsense dangerous nonsense, which means it must be true.
Ladapo got rolling by invoking “DNA fragments” because it sounds scary (again, remember our cells’ defenses protect us quite well), played the “they didn’t answer my nonsense question so I assume I’m right” card — in fact, “they” rebutted each of his points, he just didn’t care for the answers — and wrapped up by explaining that Jesus doesn’t want people to get vaccinated because mRNA is the actual Antichrist:
“I think it probably does have some integration at some levels with the human genome because these vaccines are honestly, they’re the anti-Christ of all products. […]
“You know, it’s just complete disrespect to the human genome and the importance of protecting it and preserving it. And that is our connection to God.”
Oh, maybe he believes in the demon jizz after all.
And this is where we remind you again that thanks to the GOP’s loving embrace of avoiding the COVID vaccine, the virus has killed far more people in Republican-leaning areas than in the bluer parts of the country. Hey, we had another story on that just yesterday! Apparently solidifying political power with the GOP base is worth letting some of its members die from preventable disease.
PREVIOUSLY!
[Medscape / Guardian / Scientific American / Joe.My.God.]
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It's kinda awesome how our cells prevent nasties from getting to their nucleui.
Way better than intelligent design could come up with.
George! In the header!
That's my little guy, when he was little. 3+ years later, he's enormous. What a nice surprise to see him at the top of an article, helping Wonkers everywhere not have to look at a Terrible Person. Wonkette (and George) is all servicey like that!