This evening our guest speaker was Taylor Reid, a microbiologist with a company not to be named because she was not representing her company or her clients but was just providing information based on her background as a microbiologist. She is originally from Oregon and has been working as a microbiologist for 5 years. She was invited to talk about the different vaccines for COVID-19, how they are different, how they are made and answer some frequently asked questions.
After that we got a brief lesson in cells, DNA, RNA and mRNA (Messenger RNA). She also talked about proteins, antigens, anti-bodies and the like. It’s a bit difficult to do it all justice with just words (she used lots of graphics). Anyhow, it was very interesting and educational.
Then she compared the three different vaccines (two types, really). The types are mRNA (Pfizer and Moderna) and viral vector (Johnson & Johnson). She went into some detail about how the two work which was actually more similar than different.
She answered questions (there were a few from the gallery) and most of us probably learned a thing or two. So we are thankful for speakers like Taylor who take some time to educate the rest of us.