How do COVID-19 vaccines work?
COVID-19 is a dangerous virus that can cause severe, even life-threatening respiratory issues. Symptoms including extreme fatigue, difficulty breathing, loss of senses, high fever, and more can disrupt your everyday life and lead to hospitalization. Because this type of virus is highly contagious, it’s important to stop the virus and severe symptoms as best we can. One way to do this is by getting a COVID-19 vaccine. There are three different types of coronavirus vaccines: protein subunit vaccines, mRNA vaccines, and vector vaccines. Though all three serve the same purpose, each type of vaccine works slightly differently. mRNA mRNA COVID vaccines including the Moderna vaccine and the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine tell our bodies to create special proteins. These proteins help trigger your immune system and make antibodies that will fight COVID if you get infected. Vector Vector vaccines such as the Janssen/Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine use a vector virus to let cells know they need to produce spike proteins. If you get infected by the coronavirus, your immune system will then have the antibodies needed to fight off the infection. Protein Subunit Protein subunit COVID-19 vaccines such as the AstraZeneca Vaxzevria vaccine and Novavax vaccine contain a part of the virus that activates your immune system. Your immune response to the vaccine will create antibodies that work as a defense against COVID.