Carmo Fonseca guarantees that it is safe to have the vaccine against Covid-19
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The explanation is easier if we make an analogy with a set of pieces that are assembled and disassembled, as explained by Carmo Fonseca, Full Professor in Molecular Biology at FMUL and President of the iMM. "We are simply dismantling the construction of the virus and using a piece that is so small that until now it had never been used. Precisely due to its size, we were unable to manipulate it".

 

senhora de cabelo curto e camisola preta

But what happens when the vaccine is administered? “After the injection, my immune system will be trained to respond to the virus, so that in the future, when I come in contact with the real virus, my immune system will be able to destroy it very quickly, so that I don't get sick. But it is not only that, I won't have any symptoms, and I won't transmit the virus to other people either”, she explained.

When in doubt about the content of the vaccine, and its formula, the scientist easily deconstructs any alarmism about an artificial production in the laboratory, “what is inside is like a LEGO construction. What the scientists did was to deconstruct, dismantle the various parts that make up the virus and each group chose a different part to put inside the vaccine. What we get inside vaccines is just a small part of the virus that does not cause disease”.

 

vacina da pfizer

Currently Pfizer and Moderna, both American, present results that prove to be the two most advanced vaccines. The explanation is substantiated by Carmo Fonseca, “they use only a very small piece, a molecule called RNA, the messenger RNA, which originally constitutes the virus.

Compared with the traditional flu vaccine, the production of this new vaccine could happen faster than the conventional one, thanks to the use of this RNA molecule, as well as ensuring greater efficacy and protection. Carmo Fonseca explains that even if the virus mutates in a year, it will also be more easy to adapt the vaccine by also transmuting the RNA molecules.

This RNA vaccines mechanism was already being worked on in the laboratory by Maria do Carmo Fonseca, but to prevent diseases against cancer. With the accelerated evolution of these discoveries to combat Covid-19, oncological diseases can now see a stronger enemy face them.

But let us return to the current pandemic. Vaccination has already started in the UK and the United States has received the first doses of Pfizer and is now starting the vaccine campaign. The forecasts remain positive, of the 20 thousand people who have already received the vaccines, no adverse effects were observed, such as cases of allergies that are now beginning to be talked about in the media. The Professor also reinforces that, "The only adverse reactions reported were a little pain and fatigue".

For the time being, the tests were only done on healthy people, which does not allow to have the same certainty of effectiveness in the administration to groups at risk, or with pathologies.

As for the question of whether the vaccine would be recommended to anyone with a healthy profile, Carmo Fonseca's answer could not be more confident, "I am looking forward to getting my vaccine".

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The interview was given to Sic Notícias on 13 December, at the end of the afternoon.