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If these vaccines prove effective, they will provide long-lasting immunity
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Virus vaccine
Dear HIW,
With all this talk about the need for a COVID vaccine, I wondered how the COVID-19 vaccine itself works.
Marie
Hardy
There are currently many vaccines undergoing trials around the world, and some are making very promising advancements.
While some of these vaccines have slightly different approaches, the core goals are the same. The virus is covered in spike proteins, which teams are aiming to inject safely into the body to trigger an immune response. Usually upon entering the body, all of the virus’ genes are copied and multiplied, but the COVID vaccines will only carry part of this DNA. This ensures that only the outer proteins are copied, and not the more dangerous parts.
Once the body has already encountered this part of the virus, if it comes into contact with COVID again the body will be able to attack the virus before symptoms become severe.