What Qualifies as a 'Vaccine' and When is Fast 'Suspicious'?

Just watched a very dodgy videoclip 'Dr Wakefield Warns: This is not a vax, it is irreversible genetic modification' (https://www.bitchute.com/video/9STu5P37UmHy/). The pitch is clearly directed against the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for Covid-19 but his criticisms would apply to the Moderna jab. His unhelpful gripes are that mRNA preparations are not 'vaccines' and they were developed 'suspiciously quickly'. So, what is a vaccine? It's basically a preparation exposing the human body to foreign proteins, 'teaching' it to produce an immunological response against them. This enables the immunological defenses to be rapidly activated, when first exposed to the actual disease agent (usually a bacterium or a virus). Otherwise, responses take several days. The first 'vaccine' involved people being treated to protect them from Smallpox, a dangerous and disfiguring disease. Patients were actually exposed to a closely-related but milder agent that produced Cowpox. It had been noted that milkmaids, who could catch Cowpox whilst working, were unscarred, as they rarely developed Smallpox. The word 'vaccine' was derived by Jenner fom the Latin 'vacca', which means 'a cow'. Smallpox is now one of the few human disease agents that is now (outside a few high-security laboratories) extinct. Wakefield is right in claiming that, until recently, most vaccines involved injecting the actual protein of the disease agent. This was done by injecting 'dead' organisms (usually heat-killed) or attenuated strains (these were much less potent versions of the original pathogen). mRNA preparations essentially expose the body to the genetic information coding for proteins that make up the coronavirus spikes (used by the virus to gain access to human cells). Human cells make the spike protein and the immunological defenses are activated against it. To claim 'it is irreversible genetic modification' is to misrepresent the process (the mRNA disappears from the body very quickly and nothing in the human genome is permanently changed). If you define a vaccine as 'any means of exposing the body to a foreign protein' (and I am happy to do so), mRNA preparations are clearly vaccines. Scientists got the genetic sequence for Sars-CoV-2 from a Chinese colleague at a very early stage of the pandemic. A number of groups in different parts of the world had already been investigating the possibility of using mRNA vaccines for a variety of closely-related viral conditions (like MERS and seasonal influenza). It was obvious, very quickly, that this new viral infection required a very rapid response (evident in terms of illness, deaths and the economic damage). Governments and Pharaceutical companies consequently responded. Researchers were also hardly short of infected subjects, on which to test their preparations. Whilst the Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna and Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines have been developed quickly, they have all been through substantial efficacy and safety checks. Wakefield's claim that the vaccines had been developed 'suspiciously quickly', is only true if you are conspiracy minded. It is true that there have been 2 cases of allergic responses, after treatment with the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. Vaccines, however, contain a number of agents (e.g. stabilisers and intensifiers) in addition to the active factor (in this case mRNA), which might produce adverse effects in a small number of individuals (the jury is still out). Wakefield also claims that deaths have been associated with the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. Some did occur in the testing phase but these were more common in placebo treatments. More recent reports are associated with first injections received by elderly patients with underlaying health conditions. There have been a very small number (2-3) of deaths. All such cases (not unusual in mass vaccination programmes), are fully investigated and should not be used to deter people from receiving vaccine. We already have enough problems with antivaxx sentiments. These are only likely to ensure that Covid-19 becomes endemic (i.e. we never get rid of it). A local example of vaccine resistance is provided by 2 old codgers (I can say this as I am a codger myself) in the UK, who turned their noses up at an offer of the Pfizer/BioNTech preparation. They said they would prefer to wait for the 'English' vaccine.