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Re:No one who got Moderna's vaccine in trial developed sever... by dnhz on Monday November 30, 2020 @11:15AM (#25255301)
Viruses! RNA viruses like SARS-cov-2. They make the cell reverse transcribe their RNA cargo into DNA, and then the cell produces more viruses.
Re:No one who got Moderna's vaccine in trial developed sever... by subungual on Monday November 30, 2020 @03:09PM (#25258316)
Most RNA viruses are not incorporated into DNA. SARS-CoV-2 is what's called a "positive sense" RNA virus, which means that it is directly translated by cellular machinery to produce more virus copies. It should have no interaction with cellular DNA.

Retroviruses are a subset of RNA viruses that utilize the strategy you're referring to. This requires additional machinery be coded for to allow reverse transcription to DNA and then subsequent integration into host DNA. The vast majority of RNA viruses are not retroviruses.

Re:No one who got Moderna's vaccine in trial developed sever... by orblivion on Monday November 30, 2020 @11:23AM (#25255418)
That usually (right?) doesn't lead to staying in the host's DNA, but I understand that some of our DNA is virus DNA so it DOES happen. Viruses per se aren't exactly rare, so maybe he specifically meant this phenomenon.

But also - that's reverse transcription, not reverse translation. Maybe Lupe made this point a little too late in his description.

EDIT: Sorry, moved around the above after rethinking