I’ve read recently about fears of immunizations affecting DNA. I understand that this is not the case and that the injection is “Genetic Material” to give instructions to your body to replicate certain things.
What I don’t understand is: Your genetics affect your future children; so by introducing genetic material aren’t you changing the DNA of future humans?
If in fact this is the case isn’t it possible that you won’t see side effects of these injected materials until the next generation is born?
In: Biology
DNA exists in human cells and is made of 4 protiens, Adenine, Thymine, Guanine, and Cytosine. These are often expressed as A,T G and C respectively, and that’s why a string of genetic code is often shown as a string of these letters ex: ATGATCTAG.
Each of these binds to one other of the protiens to make the double helix structure of DNA, so to get all the data, you really only need one side of the helix, this is often referred to as RNA. Messenger RNA is a kind sent out by your nucleus telling your cells what proteins to make, based on what protiens are coded for, different traits may emerge (Skin tone, eye color etc).
Viruses exploit this protein making system by injecting their own RNA into living cells, hijacking them to force them to make more viruses. This does not effect the DNA of the cell or in the case of multicellular beings, the DNA of the whole creature, especially because the cell dies in the process.
These new Mrna vaccines work by making specific proteins that exist in the virus to train the body in much the same way as a traditional dead or weakened strain vaccine does.
TLDR: We aren’t altering human genetic code to use the vaccine, because we aren’t injecting DNA
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