‘On its website, the pharmaceutical company Moderna, which has developed a COVID-19 vaccine, compares the mRNA science in its vaccine to an “operating system” (here). The phrase is used in a metaphorical sense, not a literal one.’
https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-operating-system/fact-check-the-covid-19-vaccine-is-not-an-operating-system-designed-to-program-humans-idUSKBN2A913W
Read the article if you have time but just the phrase ‘the mRNA science in its vaccine’ is jarring. ‘Science’, an abstraction, cannot be ‘in’ a vaccine or anything else. Maybe what is meant is that ‘the mRNA science used to create the vaccine is comparable to an operating system in that it can be used in the development and deployment of different nRNA vaccines’.
This is important, not nitpicking, because to suggest that there is a ‘thing’ that acts like an operating system (whether it programs humans or not) in the vaccine is to suggest the co-installation of an enabling technology alongside a specific technology that creates a specific effect.
This fact checking article is incompetently written as it suggests exactly what it intends to deny.
The Moderna statement that it references is more coherent and makes it clear that the metaphor ‘operating system’ refers to the systems used to create mRNA vaccines and not to anything ‘in’ the vaccines.
HOWEVER … the Moderna statement also points out that:
“Using mRNA to create medicines is a complex undertaking and requires overcoming novel scientific and technical challenges. We need to get the mRNA into the targeted tissue and cells while evading the immune system. If the immune system is triggered, the resultant response may limit protein production and, thus, limit the therapeutic benefit of mRNA medicines. We also need ribosomes to think the mRNA was produced naturally, so they can accurately read the instructions to produce the right protein. And we need to ensure the cells express enough of the protein to have the desired therapeutic effect. “
Moderna statement
This does imply the installation of an enabling technology; a technology that inhibits the triggering of the immune system. Might that be deleterious to the general functioning of the natural immune system?
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