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What are the ingredients of Pfizer’s covid-19 vaccine?
MIT technology review ^ | December 2020 | Antonio Regalado

Posted on 05/09/2021 7:18:59 PM PDT by Triple

We asked experts to help us decode the contents. by Antonio Regalado December 9, 2020

Facebook said on December 3 that it would remove posts with false claims or conspiracy theories about what’s in the covid-19 vaccines that everyone’s counting on.

In the face of rumors suggesting that Bill Gates has installed tracking microchips in the shots, or that the inoculations contain luciferase, a glowing chemical from fireflies whose name makes some people think of the devil, the company suggested it would be policing such claims by making reference to the “official vaccine ingredient list.”

What’s actually on the official ingredient list? This week an elderly UK woman became the first person outside of a trial to get the newly approved vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, and the US could greenlight the same inoculation as soon as Thursday, December 10. Along with the regulatory actions over the last week have come the most detailed disclosures yet of the new vaccine’s makeup.

Here, for instance, is what the US Food and Drug Administration says is in Pfizer’s vaccine:

Active Ingredient nucleoside-modified messenger RNA (modRNA) encoding the viral spike glycoprotein (S) of SARS-CoV-2 Lipids (4-hydroxybutyl)azanediyl)bis(hexane-6,1-diyl)bis (ALC-3015) (2- hexyldecanoate),2-[(polyethylene glycol)-2000]-N,N-ditetradecylacetamide (ALC-0159) 1,2-distearoyl-snglycero-3-phosphocholine (DPSC) cholesterol

Salts potassium chloride monobasic potassium phosphate sodium chloride basic sodium phosphate dihydrate

Other sucrose

Reading the ingredient list is like looking at the side of a cereal box, except that you need a degree in organic chemistry to understand it. We got help from various scientists and biotech entrepreneurs to understand what each of the ingredients does and make some educated guesses about others.

The mRNA

Pfizer’s vaccine is the first on the market that consists of actual genetic information from a virus in the form of messenger RNA, or mRNA, a type of molecule whose usual job is to transport copies of genetic instructions around a cell to guide the assembly of proteins. Imagine an mRNA as a long ticker tape carrying instructions. It’s fairly delicate stuff, and that’s why Pfizer’s vaccine needs to be kept at around -100 °F (-73 °C) until it’s used.

The new vaccine, delivered as a shot in the arm muscle, contains an RNA sequence taken from the virus itself; it causes cells to manufacture the big “spike” protein of the coronavirus, which the pathogen uses to glom onto a person’s cells and gain entry. On its own, without the rest of the virus, the spike is pretty harmless. But your body still reacts to it. This is what leaves you immunized and ready to repel the real virus if it turns up.

The mRNA in the vaccine, to be sure, isn’t quite the same as the stuff in your body. That’s good, because a cell is full of defenses ready to chop up RNA, especially any that doesn’t belong there. To avoid that, what’s known as “modified nucleosides” have been substituted for some of the mRNA building blocks.

But Pfizer is holding back a little. The spike gene sequence can be tweaked in small ways for better performance, by means that include swapping letters. We don’t think Pfizer has said exactly what sequence it is using, or what modified nucleosides. That means the content of the shot may not be 100% public.

The lipids

The Pfizer vaccine, like one from Moderna, uses lipid nanoparticles to encase the RNA. The nanoparticles are, basically, tiny greasy spheres that protect the mRNA and help it slide inside cells.

These particles are probably around 100 nanometers across. Curiously, that’s about the same size as the coronavirus itself.

Pfizer says it uses four different lipids in a “defined ratio.” The lipid ALC-0315 is the primary ingredient in the formulation. That’s because it’s ionizable—it can be given a positive charge, and since the RNA has a negative one, they stick together. It’s also a component that can cause side-effects or allergic reactions. The other lipids, one of which is the familiar molecule cholesterol, are “helpers” that give structural integrity to the nanoparticles or stop them from clumping. During manufacturing, the RNA and the lipids are stirred into a bubbly mix to form what the FDA describes as a “white to off-white” frozen liquid.

Salts

The Pfizer vaccine contains four salts, one of which is ordinary table salt. Together, these salts are better known as phosphate-buffered saline, or PBS, a very common ingredient that keeps the pH, or acidity, of the vaccine close to that of a person’s body. You’ll understand how important that is if you’ve ever squeezed lemon juice on a cut. Substances with the wrong acidity can injure cells or get quickly degraded.

Sugar

The vaccine includes plain old sugar, also called sucrose. It’s acting here as a cryoprotectant to safeguard the nanoparticles when they’re frozen and stop them from sticking together.

Saline solution

Before injection, the vaccine is mixed with water containing sodium chloride, or ordinary salt, just as many intravenously delivered drugs are. Again, the idea is that the injection should more or less match the salt content of the blood.

No preservatives

Pfizer makes a point of saying its mixture of lipid nanoparticles and mRNA is “preservative-free.” That’s because a preservative that’s been used in other vaccines, thimerosal (which contains mercury and is there to kill any bacteria that might contaminate a vial), has been at the center of worries around over whether vaccines cause autism. The US Centers for Disease Control says thimerosal is safe; despite that, its use is being phased out. There is no thimerosal—or any other preservative—in the Pfizer vaccine. No microchips, either.

The vaccine is still known by the code name BNT162b, but once it’s authorized, expect Pfizer to give it a new, commercial name that conveys something about what’s in it and what it promises for the world.

We thank the following people for explaining the vaccine ingredients: Jacob Becraft and Aalok Shah, Strand Therapeutics; Yizhou Dong, Ohio State University; Jason Underwood, Pacific Biosciences; Andrey Zarur, Greenlight Biosciences; Charles L. Cooney, MIT; and the communications staffs of Pfizer and Moderna Therapeutics.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 1sugar; 2spice; 3everythingnice; antivaxxers; covid19; covidvaccine; doomscrolling; doomsurfing; hysteria; nanoparticles; pfizer; stillmrna; vaccine
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To: Prov1322

I agree - MIT is being a bit cute/mocking in this piece. That is why the mystery nucleosides mention strikes me. Did they miss the talking point that said “Don’t talk about the modifications to the RNA?”


41 posted on 05/10/2021 5:58:02 AM PDT by Triple (Socialism denies people the right to the fruits of their labor, and is as abhorrent as slavery)
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To: Travis McGee

Great video -

It seems Gates started planning/funding the creation of these gene therapy approach vaccines many years ago.

Around the time the WHO was developing vaccines with “birth control” built in as an added feature.


42 posted on 05/10/2021 6:03:23 AM PDT by Triple (Socialism denies people the right to the fruits of their labor, and is as abhorrent as slavery)
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To: Triple

And Trump walked right into the trap with “Operation Warp Speed.”

They already had the mRNA program ready and waiting.


43 posted on 05/10/2021 6:04:28 AM PDT by Travis McGee (EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
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To: Triple

44 posted on 05/10/2021 6:05:01 AM PDT by Travis McGee (EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
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To: miserare
As a bribe. In real research studies they sign things so they have full knowledge of what they are doing and what may happen to them. No such luck for today's mind-nubbed.

Oh yeah, did you know that one of the heads of the drug companies handling their own jab, said that covid is going away this summer and that when that happens they will be raising the price of their jab to $150. (Now that may be the emergency thing goes away. I don't really know what he meant.)

Like what? It is going to be over AND they will be raising their price? Would it make sense that if it was going away wouldn't they not need the shots anymore?

All this for a genetically-engineered cold virus.

I need me a flipping break.

45 posted on 05/10/2021 6:50:29 AM PDT by Slyfox (Not my circus, not my monkeys)
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To: Travis McGee

No argument here.

- Hard to grasp the depth of the evil we are facing.

But watching that clip of george bernard Shaw in the Gates video: would send a chill down a mortician’s spine. (Re Eugenics)


46 posted on 05/10/2021 7:13:46 AM PDT by Triple (Socialism denies people the right to the fruits of their labor, and is as abhorrent as slavery)
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To: Triple

My understanding of this (and I am not a geneticist, but rather a Computer Scientist, who is used to a different scheme for encoding information) is that the “modified nucleosides” are simply substitutions. If you think of the generic code in terms of the alphabet of AGCT, there are several base-pair substitutions that can be made that in certain circumstances express exactly the same amino acids, but the resulting protein might fold differently. I read an explanation of this that claimed that if you just took the coding for the spike protein and used it in the vaccine verbatim, the produced protein was misshapen (did not ‘stand up’ like it was supposed to) due to not being attached to a virus therefore was useless. The base-pair substitutions were able to produce exactly the same protein, but in a way that was correctly folded and therefore induced the correct immune response. Again, though, IANAG.


47 posted on 05/10/2021 7:38:16 AM PDT by billakay
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To: USAF80

Don’t forget that when the invader is a “virus”, the virus is actively attacking cells to produce these clones. The vaccine doses (which in my understanding are identical, first and second) are effectively inert, except maybe tying up some ACE2 receptors temporarily. They cannot reproduce, and are only there in order to induce the immune system to recognize and react to them. In other words, they don’t need to be ‘fought off’. If the immune system doesn’t get to some of them, they will simply degrade harmlessly.


48 posted on 05/10/2021 7:43:51 AM PDT by billakay
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To: billakay

Not really. - the lipid coat around the mRNA in the vaccine does not need to bind to a receptor site/protein to pass into the cell.
———-
it is possible that the substitute nucleosides are not analogs, but are different naturally modified nucleosides with control functions . They are most likely (but a guess) methylated adenosine. (But they could be less-natural analogs.)

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5167638/

Follow the link above to see details on why methylated adenosine is my best guess.


49 posted on 05/10/2021 9:04:50 AM PDT by Triple (Socialism denies people the right to the fruits of their labor, and is as abhorrent as slavery)
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To: Triple

This type of RNA modification and/or targeting is what may save my husband’s life. He has CML which is the Philadelphia chromosome very rare type of leukemia. This technology concept has been studied and tested for over a decade.


50 posted on 05/10/2021 9:46:22 AM PDT by Ms. AntiFeminazi
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To: Ms. AntiFeminazi

It is great new technology. I sincerely hope it helps your family.

The threshold for treating sick people is very different than the one for administering a new approach to healthy people.

BTW: Gene therapy is often turned down by sick people, due to the risks involved.


51 posted on 05/10/2021 9:54:08 AM PDT by Triple (Socialism denies people the right to the fruits of their labor, and is as abhorrent as slavery)
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To: Triple

I was talking about after transcription. I believe that they had to do some substitutions so that the mRNA resulted in the production of a correctly shaped S-protein…the issue being that using the exact sequence from the virus resulted in a misfolded protein being produced in the absence of a virus particle to support it.


52 posted on 05/10/2021 10:06:53 AM PDT by billakay
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To: billakay

Ok - and that would be separate from the modification needed to make the RNA more durable.


53 posted on 05/10/2021 10:11:53 AM PDT by Triple (Socialism denies people the right to the fruits of their labor, and is as abhorrent as slavery)
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To: Triple

I also have autoimmune diseases. We both got the Pfizer vaccine. Time will tell, but as of now, I have no concerns. My sister and 2 closest friends all work in hospitals with critical patients and have seen some of the worst of Coronavirus. They are healthy, younger and have all had the vaccine.
All of my doctors, all younger than me, have had the vaccine. I’ve also known firsthand people (5 so far) that have died from COVID - all under the age of 50. Another friend is a “longtermer” after being on a ventilator last summer. This morning, I found out that my previous next door neighbor who is my age (50’s) was released from the hospital yesterday after kidney failure and multiple transfusions from her 2nd bout with COVID. I haven’t heard yet if she had the vaccine.

If this thing is as bad as some fear, we will be in short supply of medical assistance from surgeons, doctors, nurses, EMS, etc because most have had the vaccine.

Time will tell. To quote ALL of my Healthcare providers...this may not prevent me from getting COVID, but it gives me a fighting chance to survive it.


54 posted on 05/10/2021 10:25:58 AM PDT by Ms. AntiFeminazi
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To: Ms. AntiFeminazi

Many health professionals are also not getting vaccinated at least until it is approved by the FDA. (Not EUA)


55 posted on 05/10/2021 10:33:33 AM PDT by Triple (Socialism denies people the right to the fruits of their labor, and is as abhorrent as slavery)
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To: Triple

Meant to say thanks for the kind words. No luck with first tier drug. Should know more about the 2nd tier drug effect in a couple of months. We’re on the bone marrow transplant list now but no match yet. The drug could be huge if it works.


56 posted on 05/10/2021 10:51:44 AM PDT by Ms. AntiFeminazi
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To: Ms. AntiFeminazi

Moderna is a cancer company that has not fielded a single vaccine in its history. They also have no testimonials from patients they have saved with their miracle cures.


57 posted on 05/10/2021 3:43:36 PM PDT by USAF80
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To: billakay

Oh this stuff works alright. Just look at the VAERS reports for all the symptoms and they are all eerily similar. All immune system malfunctions.

The doses are not the same in the double kill shots. I think the first is not that many particles injected. The second has more. If you look at VAERS you will see that most of the problems started after the 2nd injection.


58 posted on 05/10/2021 3:48:13 PM PDT by USAF80
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To: USAF80

I fully agree with you that something is off. Way more testing and analysis needed to be done before a rollout like this. I did verify that the first and second doses are identical for both Pfizer and Moderna though. The more intense response is probably due to the “prior knowledge” of the immune system.


59 posted on 05/10/2021 4:38:35 PM PDT by billakay
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To: Triple

Straight from the Pfizer Fact Sheet for Recipients and Caregivers:

“The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine includes the following ingredients: mRNA, lipids ((4-hydroxybutyl)azanediyl)bis(hexane-6,1-diyl)bis(2-hexyldecanoate), 2 [(polyethylene glycol)-2000]-N,N-ditetradecylacetamide, 1,2-Distearoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine, and cholesterol), potassium chloride, monobasic potassium phosphate, sodium chloride, dibasic sodium phosphate dihydrate, and sucrose.”

Note the word at the beginning of the ingredients list, “includes.” The ingredients in the cookies I baked yesterday INCLUDED eggs, flour and butter. They also had other ingredients.


60 posted on 05/31/2021 4:08:42 PM PDT by Auntie Mame (Fear not tomorrow. God is already there.)
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