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Comment by merrywhether | Hacker News Reader

> require you to have a gene therapy

Would you prefer they require basic science education instead so that you can be less misinformed?

In my observation, so many engineers think that because they get paid a lot for being smart developers they are actually just smarter than everyone, and that other fields are simple things that they can master from a weekend of web surfing. It’s probably an extension of the general American puritanical belief that the rich are rich because they are simply better people who have been rewarded by grace. In this demographic, the senior engineers have simply had more time to build themselves up in their own minds.

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> Would you prefer they require basic science education instead so that you can be less misinformed?

We would prefer we are allowed to make our own choices, which is why people leave for places that will allow them to do so.

Do you also rail against speed limits and any form of giving up “rights” under the social contract that is government? Or is it that you don’t want a truly Mad Max-style every-man-is-an-island and might-makes-right existence and we’re now talking about a matter of degree?

I have a degree in CS and minored in BioEngineering. I’ve also kept up with the field and regularly drop in on classes.

Finally, this isn’t some conspiracy idea. Here’s from Cornell

https://allianceforscience.cornell.edu/blog/2020/12/yes-some...

They’re using genetic material to have your body create proteins. Some people like to argue it’s not “gene therapy” because it doesn’t make lasting gene edits. But (1) the definition is disputed and (2) that’s also not clear because we haven’t studied if it changes gene expression. We also don’t know how long the mRNA lasts, so it can keep generating the cytotoxic spike proteins for an unknown length of time.

You’re the only arrogant one here.

> I have a degree in CS and minored in BioEngineering.

> We also don’t know how long the mRNA lasts, so it can keep generating the cytotoxic spike proteins for an unknown length of time.

I have a degree in Biology, a Master's in Bioinformatics, and I worked for 4 years in a wetlab working with actual RNA. We know very well how long mRNA lasts: it lasts very, very, very little. In fact, one of the challenges of mRNA vaccines was precisely to make their RNA be stable enough for storage and make it survive long enough to enter our cells to be translated.

Not only is RNA a structurally unstable molecule thanks to the oxygen in position 2 of the ribose (as opposed to the deoxyribose in DNA), but in its unbound form it is actively degraded by a variety of RNAse enzymes, for two reasons: first, mRNA functions as a short-term messenger and it would get in the way of the cell's ability to quickly regulate its own gene expression; second, the body does not trust any old RNA floating about as it may well be viral in origin. In fact, we even release very stable RNAses through our skin, which are the bane of labwork when working with RNA.

From what you cited:

> mRNA stays in the cytoplasm, where the ribosomes are. It does not enter the nucleus and cannot interact with your DNA or cause any changes to the genome. No Frankencure here, either.

Its not genetic anything and the articles title is bad. MRNa vaccines don't make any gene edits. They don't affect your DNA.

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