• Question: whats in the corona virus vaccine

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      Asked by anon-290172 on 15 Mar 2021.
      • Photo: Jesko Koehnke

        Jesko Koehnke answered on 15 Mar 2021:

        That is a cool question, because the COVID vaccine is the first one for which a new technology has been approved.
        New technology (Biontech, Moderna etc.) contain the information the gets your own cells to produce part(s) of the virus. Your immune system recognises that and learns to defend against it.
        Old technology (e.g. AstraZeneca): Part of the new coronavirus is grafted onto a harmless virus your body already knows how to defend against. But this way it also learns to recognise and defend against the new virus.

      • Photo: Martin McCoustra

        Martin McCoustra answered on 16 Mar 2021:

        I think there are two types of vaccine… one is based on a well-established method of taking bits of dead virus and attaching them to another safe virus. Many other vaccines use this approach. The second uses uses viral genetic material to trigger your immune system to recognise the virus. This is a new approach. Both work and both are effective.

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