> But from what I gather, mRNA vaccines basically inject your body with a coded recipe for how to manufacture the immune stuff it normally manufactures in reaction to an infection, only without having to first be infected.
The mRNA in the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines contains the instructions to make copies of just the spike protein from the outside of the virus. During the short lifetime of the mRNA, your body will follow these instructions and produce these spikes. Alone, this protein isn’t a virus and is pretty much inert.
Then, your body naturally recognizes this protein as a foreign substance and creates antibodies to attack it.
If the real virus enters your body later, your body will already have antibodies that recognize the spike and will immediately start fighting it off, faster than it normally would if you got infected without already having the antibodies.
It’s like a training program for your immune system.
The mRNA in the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines contains the instructions to make copies of just the spike protein from the outside of the virus. During the short lifetime of the mRNA, your body will follow these instructions and produce these spikes. Alone, this protein isn’t a virus and is pretty much inert.
Then, your body naturally recognizes this protein as a foreign substance and creates antibodies to attack it.
If the real virus enters your body later, your body will already have antibodies that recognize the spike and will immediately start fighting it off, faster than it normally would if you got infected without already having the antibodies.
It’s like a training program for your immune system.