“...The RNA based vaccines are completely synthesized in the lab. They “program” the T cells to produce a response....”
***************************************************************************
Your post is on the money up until it gets to the 2nd sentence in the above extract. That sentence is incorrect and is where your post goes “off the rails” and into the woods with all kinds of scary “what ifs”. Actually the vaccines’ mRNA simply goes to the cells’ ribosomes (the cellular protein manufacturing “machines”) where it serves as the blueprint for manufacturing the necessary antigens. From that point on the immune systems react to the antigens (by developing the needed immunity) just as they do with more traditional vaccines. That’s all the mRNA vaccines do... just provide a different means to provide the needed antigens. It’s not really scary.
One, it is direct genetic manipulation of the immune system. My concern with that is primarily with quality control during the large-scale manufacture of the mRNA. Initial doses made "by hand" in the lab for the trials are one thing. Producing industrial quantities is another. Yes I realize that is what pharmaceutical company's business is and they're good at it but... Scaling up almost always involves a few lessons of it's own. If there are issues with manufacturing can "the message" get garbled and change? Your information does ease some concerns I have. Perhaps at worst a garbled message just produces ineffective antigens.
Two, it is brand new, never been tried on this scale before technology. The first two covid-19 mRNA based vaccines are in fact the first mRNA based vaccines to ever be approved by the FDA. Even that approval is on a emergency/experimental basis.
Given our track record as a species with developing new technologies or even simply trying new things in any field it is a safe bet that there is something wrong with those mRNA based vaccines. Yes it is possible we "got it right" on the first try, but history and statistics are on my side - there is something wrong with them. We just don't know what it is yet.
If we're lucky, extremely lucky, in five or ten years covid-19 will only be something we bore our kids and grandkids with as we tell stories of "the lost year."
If we're nominally lucky, in five or ten years we'll have figured out that mRNA vaccines work fairly well but need some tweaking and oh by the way we'll need booster shots every five or ten years.
If Murphy raises his head, in five or ten years the news will be about how the new growth industry is building and staffing long-term care facilities for the double-digit millions of people with debilitating immunological side effects that are only just now coming to light. The top news story will be the newly signed "Mayo Clinic Accords" that severely regulate and restrict mRNA based vaccines and other uses of the technology.
I believe it is likely we are simply headed for the middle-ground case where we learn a few things, tweak a few things, and move on. In these kinds of things though I am very risk-averse so I am going to opt into the control group and not get the vaccine.