Academy of Medical Sciences Dr Ryan Thwaites sits on the immunology and COVID-19 expert advisory group which was convened by The Academy of Medical Sciences and the British Society for Immunology. The Academy, based on Portland Place, is an elected fellowship of medical researchers. It has over 1,300 fellows, about half of whom are clinically qualified, the other half being laboratory scientists in a range of disciplines. The Academy, which seeks to promote excellence in research,influence policy to improve health, promote careers in medical research, and foster links between academia, industry and government, is a registered charity that relies on philanthropic funding. To support its work and make a donation please visit: acmedsci.ac.uk/support Royal Society of Medicine Prof John Ashton sits on the advisory board of th e Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. To find out more about the RSM, see page22.
some deliberate misinformation about the nature of the mRNA vaccines and Dr Thwaites is keen to point out that these vaccines most definitely don’t re-write a person’s DNA. “The instructions about how to produce the spike protein are short lived,” he explained. “The cells that start producing the spike protein do so for maybe a few days. This is enough time for your immune system to learn to recognise the protein and respond to it. Once the immune response identifies and kills these cells, they are replaced by cells without the instructions for producing the spike protein.” All three vaccines differ from the traditional approach, which is to take the real virus, kill it and then inject it into people. However, while this is the first time these new approaches
Containment is key with a pandemic. You need to identify cases and have the ability to isolate and support the communities involved. Most importantly, this needs to happen quickly
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