[innomatics]

That's a nice explanation.

If I were him I'd ask why not just print the spikes at the vaccine factory and inject them?

TBH I'm not sure if it's easier/cheaper to use the 3D-printers in our cells, or its more about accurate delivery to the right places, or something else.

[civilized]

Some educated guesses:

1. We don't have "ribosomes at scale"

2. We don't have a way to separate the ribosome product from the factory

3. Keeping the product stable is hard

[mrguyorama]

Another interesting reason is that if you do it the mRNA way, you will continue to internally produce those spike proteins to train your immune system for a week or two

[ch4s3]

Basically it takes longer to produce them at scale, and they've been less effective at preventing covid infection in clinical trials.

[arrosenberg]

The non-mRNA vaccines do work like that. They use big vats of bacteria as bioreactors and ship the finished product.

Long term, mRNA is a more flexible solution - just ship the blueprints and let people make it themselves.