Great question, especially in the climate that we're in with the rise of monkeypox. A lot of factors come into this play such as race, geographics, health status, age, sex, and who has access to medical care. To investigate your question there needs to be many participants in a clinical trial to possibly find your answer.
It is the opinion of the writer that as the original author of this post mentioned, there may in fact be a correlation to how certain individuals of a specific race/ethnicity may respond to various vaccinations. For example, many individuals within the African American community in particular have a distrust within healthcare due to their unsolicited participation in various trials without their consent i.e. (Henrietta Lack's Hela Cells & The Tuskeegee Study). In this case, the cells that were used to observe cells from the Hela cells did not have the proper consent from her family to obtain the cells. After this, many individuals lost trust within the healthcare system. Also during the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, there was a lack of consent yet again in which the men who were actual unknowingly subjects in the study were unaware that they were being injected with the syphilis virus. Based on the previously mentioned cases, this left many African Americans in particular with a major distrust within healthcare. Recent studies have shown that African Americans have a higher incidence rate of various conditions, and were also at the top of the list for death of covid-19 related deaths. In this case, if there is a newly developed vaccination that could aid in better outcomes overall, it is the opinion of the writer that it is important for individuals who may already have some sort of hesitancy of receiving new vaccinations due to mistrust should be encouraged to participate in various clinical trials as well as receive the new vaccines in general after they have been developed. Ultimately, it is the opinion of the writer that individuals from certain backgrounds may respond a specific way to the antibodies that are formed after a vaccination has been administered. Recent studies have in fact shown that race related differences in antibody responses are linked to pre-existing gene expression profiles in the blood, which could ultimately explain the differences in the outcomes of vaccination responses overall.
This is a great topic. In minority communities, there is a lack of trust when it comes to being involved in a clinical trial. This stems from historical misconduct, as we saw in the Tuskegee Experiment. No one wants to be used as a “lab rat.” Although necessary, minority participation is very low in being involved in clinical trials, less than 10%. I believe this also directly correlates with the disparities in health care.
In this day and age, vaccine testing on human subjects shouldn't be as novel an idea as it is, and is honestly the best means of ensuring vaccine efficacy (should it have been tested pre-clinically on animal subjects). Given the world's population, as well as how close in proximity individuals live nowadays, testing vaccinations on humans is inevitable and necessary, even from an ethical standpoint. COVID-19 should provide enough example to this and the importance of vaccine testing on human subjects (who are able to consent and willing) as that's the best form of ensuring a vaccine will be beneficial to as much of the population as possible.
With vaccines today, there are a many factors and variables that researchers have to consider when developing these vaccines and how they are tested in the clinical trials. I am sure that environment could have an effect on the efficacy of the vaccine and how well it could protect the subject it is administered to, but the issue is that there are not many people who are willing to participate in a lot of studies due to past history within certain countries. Even with the recent vaccine, many of the studies weren't able to get a high amount of African Americans, American Indians, Pacific Islanders or even Asians to participate in the trials for the covid vaccines due to past actions. I also believe that if you would want to test how and if the vaccine's properties or efficacy changes depending on environmental factors, I believe the study would take many years to finish and a lot of money would be needed to make sure that there were clinical sites all over the world.
Todays vaccine trials are highly controversial, the basic nature of design of trial raises questions. I can agree to fact the vaccines are safe, and were need of hour, although using a least explored technology like mRNA was not need of hour when you have explored tech like using inactivated virus. There is least clarity on exact invading mechanism of virus along with long term effect of covid on other body systems. In such situation going for mass vaccination with technology with low data is risky. We have not studied animal models for new tech vaccines, nor there is much clarity of longterm effects of vaccine vs after effects of covid. There is lack of clarity on data on how placebo patients performed in later stages since all were vaccinated at one point or the other in future.
To answer the first question, I do believe that different vaccines work on different people due to factors such as race and location. Environment plays a huge role in how your body may react with a vaccine. That's why it is important to test on all types of people to understand the positive and negative effects of that person. However, it is important to note that it does not mean that it is the same for all humans, especially in black people. Genes play a huge factor and because everyone has different genes then the outcome on vaccines will be different. The only way to know if a vaccine works on someone is to test it on that person. Studies typically have a lot of subjects to try to get a holistic viewpoint in the results but that does not mean it will work for everyone.
The idea that American mRNA strands have been more modified over time compared to indigenous people is not scientifically supported. However, it is true that genetic diversity can impact vaccine effectiveness, which is why it is important for vaccine trials to include diverse populations. While mRNA vaccines have shown to be highly effective against COVID-19, ongoing surveillance and monitoring of vaccine efficacy and safety will continue to be important as the virus evolves and new variants emerge. Additionally, ongoing research into the immune response of diverse populations can help identify any potential differences in vaccine efficacy and inform strategies for improving vaccine effectiveness for all individuals.
