Traditional vaccines are made from weakened viruses grown from chicken eggs. Through vaccines, the human body can learn to protect itself from a real virus.
Then, how do Covid vaccines work? There are several different types of vaccines that have been developed or in the stage of being developed. For example, the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine uses the Viral Vector approach. This method utilizes a harmless virus altered with the code of the COVID-19 spike protein which then enters our body cells. When the real virus enters our immune system, our cells now know how to counter the virus. However, the most popular vaccine in the U.S. today is the Pfizer-Biotech vaccine, which uses the RNA approach. The vaccine contains mRNA. Messenger RNA, or mRNA carries instructions for building proteins. The Pfizer-Biotech vaccine’s artificial mRNA tells our cells to make spike proteins, like the ones found on the surface of the Covid-19 virus. Similar to viral vectors, this type of vaccine provokes our immune system. It now recognizes the spikes, produces antigens to fight it and to kill infected cells. The development of these vaccines has proved to be one of the most advanced scientific innovations of the decade. This innovation might even deserve a Nobel Prize.
For more on Pfizer-Biotech Vaccine, please read, “How does the Pfizer-Biotech Vaccine work?”
Works Cited
“What Makes an RNA Vaccine Different From a Conventional Vaccine?” Breakthroughs, www.breakthroughs.com/advancing-medical-research/what-makes-rna-vaccine-different-conventional-vaccine.
Weller, Charlie et al. “What Different Types of Covid-19 Vaccine Are There?” Wellcome, 16 Dec. 2020, wellcome.org/news/what-different-types-covid-19-vaccine-are-there.
Henninger, Daniel. “Opinion | Pharma Deserves the Nobel Peace Prize for the Covid Vaccines.” The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones & Company, 2 Dec. 2020, www.wsj.com/articles/pharma-deserves-the-nobel-peace-prize-for-the-covid-vaccines-11606950780.