The great hope of the pandemic are the corona vaccines. Instead of vaccinating themselves with mRNA or vector vaccines, many vaccine skeptics prefer to wait for dead vaccines.
Munich – The skepticism about the vaccines to protect against the corona virus remains. Germany and many other countries are facing vaccine opponents – despite thorough testing, approval and recommendation of the vaccine. Some skeptics argue that they would be more likely to be vaccinated if there were a dead vaccine based on the classic procedure. An alleged dead vaccine is about to be approved in the EU: the corona vaccine from Novavax. A ray of hope for vaccine skeptics?
Novavax: is the corona vaccine a dead vaccine?
The vaccine is often incorrectly declared as a so-called dead vaccine. The vaccine from Novavax, however, is a protein-based vaccine candidate, as the US company writes on its website. It therefore belongs neither to the group of mRNA vaccines (Biontech, Moderna) nor to the group of vector vaccines (Astrazeneca, Johnson & Johnson).
What is a dead vaccine?
A dead vaccine contains only killed viruses. Opposite to br.de Martina Sester, Professor of Immunology at Saarland University, explained: “The dead vaccine is called dead vaccine because it does not multiply in the body. What is in the syringe alone acts as a kind of vaccine. ”The dead vaccines include tetanus, whooping cough or diphtheria, for example.
In relation to the coronavirus pandemic, the Franco-Austrian biotechnology company Valneva has developed a dead vaccine. Approval in the EU is still pending (as of December 10, 2021)
“Recombinant protein vaccine”: vaccine experts and Lauterbach explain
This was also confirmed by Karl Lauterbach (SPD) – even before he took office as Federal Minister of Health. He responded to one via Twitter Contribution by Florian Krammer, a professor of vaccination studies. He wrote: “Can you please stop calling the Novavax vaccine a dead vaccine? It’s a recombinant protein vaccine. “
Lauterbach wrote: “That’s true. But because so many unvaccinated only want dead vaccine, for whatever reason, Novavax available soon will be labeled as such. ”He expressed his lack of understanding – after all, unlike the Novavax vaccine, the mRNA corona vaccines are“ tried and tested billions of times ”.
How does the Novavax corona vaccine work?
Novavax uses the so-called spike protein from Sars-CoV-2 for its vaccine and reproduces it en masse in insect cells. After vaccination, the human immune system uses it to generate antibodies against the protein and can thus fight off Covid 19 disease. In order to strengthen the immune response and to stimulate high levels of neutralizing antibodies, a potentiator (a so-called adjuvant) is added. The advantage of the protein-based vaccine is that the immune system can begin to produce antibodies against the spike protein of the coronavirus almost immediately after the vaccination.
Compared to the MDR said vaccine researcher Dr. Torben Schiffner that the technology of protein-based vaccines has proven itself over many years in the production of flu vaccines. “Perhaps that will also calm people down who were previously skeptical and who had concerns about the new types of vaccines.” So Novavax – also as a protein-based vaccine – could be a small ray of hope. (mbr)
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