JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, using the mRNA technology, are going into the arms of millions of people nationwide. Yet some are still worried if those vaccines are truly safe.
Their question, "Could they somehow mess with my DNA down the road?"
Dr. Gregory Poland, Vaccine Research Team, Mayo, Rochester, says, "You could say, 'I want to wait for five years for more data before I take the vaccine.' That's your choice."
He continues, "But you run a very high risk of getting COVID-19. And a high risk of a serious case of complications from that. So which risk do you want? That's how I explain it to people."
He says you don't need to worry about any changes deep inside your body to your DNA.
"That's a misinformed opinion," Poland says. "MRNA does not get into the nucleus of cells. It cannot change the DNA of our cells. It simply can't. Once it's injected, it lasts only a few hours in our cells. It's never in the nucleus of our cells where the chromosomes are."
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Yet it's our human nature to want to be sure something is totally safe.
Poland says, "And I do get this question. Name one thing you do in life that's absolutely, positively safe. You get into a car and you have a 15% lifetime risk of chronic disability."
He says you have to weigh the risks. And accept them.
"Right now one out of every 650 Americans is dead from COVID," Poland says.
He says the vaccines are critical if we ever want to get back to what used to be our normal lives.