Dr. Jane M. Orient, an Arizona internist who will testify before Congress on Tuesday, has raised concerns about the new scientific methods that the drug companies Moderna and Pfizer are using to develop coronavirus vaccines, and about continued calls for widespread vaccination.
“It seems to me reckless to be pushing people to take risks when you don’t know what the risks are,” Dr. Orient said this week in an interview with The New York Times. “People’s rights should be respected. Where is ‘my body, my choice’ when it comes to this?”
Pfizer and Moderna are indeed relying on new scientific methods for their vaccines, building them around a molecule called messenger RNA, or mRNA, a natural genetic material that instructs the manufacture of proteins in human cells. But the concerns raised by Dr. Orient, who leads the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons and was previously criticized for promoting anti-vaccine sentiment, aren’t backed by the wealth of scientific evidence to date.
Although neither experimental vaccine has yet been given a green light by the Food and Drug Administration for widespread use, both products have been heavily and carefully tested in clinical trials. Early data suggests they are about 95 percent effective at protecting people from developing Covid-19, and neither has shown serious side effects.
Both Pfizer and Moderna have applied for emergency use authorization for their vaccines from the F.D.A. On Thursday, the agency will review Pfizer’s case, and many experts expect the product to win approval. On Tuesday, the F.D.A. released documents reaffirming the Pfizer vaccine’s safety and effectiveness in a wide range of volunteers, across age, weight and race. Emergency authorization for Moderna’s vaccine will probably follow next week.
The approvals would kick-start a series of vaccination campaigns that are expected to stretch far into 2021. Mass vaccination, which will curb the pandemic’s death toll and most likely slow the spread of disease, is an important step in the fight against the coronavirus.
“Getting vaccinated protects you, but it also protects the people around you,” said Padmini Pillai, a vaccine researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “And based on data, the virus kills, but the vaccine doesn’t.”
The mRNA in these vaccines contains the blueprint for a protein found on the surface of the coronavirus. Once produced by cells, this protein acts like a molecular mug shot that teaches the immune system about the coronavirus’s most memorable features. This prepares the body to fight the real virus off, should it ever come to call.
The process more or less mimics what happens when a virus infects a cell: It, too, must unload its genetic cargo, and force the cell to churn out proteins. But unlike a virus, the mRNA is not infectious and cannot prompt cells to produce active, disease-causing viruses. The molecules are also fragile and do not linger long in cells after they are “read” to make proteins. Researchers have no reason to believe they leave a lasting mark on the human body, apart from bolstering its defenses against infection.
Pfizer’s vaccine has already been granted emergency approval in Britain. It and Moderna’s product are on track to be the world’s first fully licensed mRNA vaccines, though similar vaccines have been in development for decades.
Neither vaccine has caused serious side effects in clinical trial volunteers. While many recipients have experienced mild symptoms after being injected, including headaches, mild fevers, fatigue and aches, “that just means the immune system is working,” Dr. Pillai said. “Tens of thousands of people have received the vaccine safely.”
The F.D.A. and equivalent agencies in other countries take safety seriously when considering whether to give vaccines their stamps of approval. Researchers will also continue to be on the lookout for any unexpected side effects as more people are vaccinated. So far, Dr. Orient’s skepticism appears unfounded.
Dr. Orient has also attracted criticism for her stalwart defense of hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for Covid-19 despite overwhelming evidence that the drug has little benefit and may harm the people who receive it.
She will appear on Tuesday before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in a hearing focused on at-home treatment for Covid-19. She told The Times this week that doctors were too often sending patients home to ride out their disease.