Vaccines: What’s Inside Them and Are They Safe?
We know what vaccines generally look like: a needle that a medical professional injects into your or your child’s arm. But what’s inside them, and are they safe?
A traditional vaccine, like your annual flu shot, contains proteins and pieces of a bacterium or a virus, or a killed or weakened version of the bug. It uses these fragments to prepare your immune system to recognize and fight off the living bacterium or virus if you come in contact with it out in the world.
Here’s an analogy: Imagine a fierce football game with defensive and offensive teams. Before the game begins, the defense steals the other team’s playbook (scandalous). The offense—a virus, in this situation—takes the field, thinking it has some awesome plays. But surprise! The defense—your vaccinated, immunized body—knows exactly what to expect.
While there are many types of vaccines, hosts Dr. Alok Patel and Bethany Van Delft explore how each falls into one of a few broad categories. 1. Vaccines can contain the proteins of a bacterium or virus; 2. Vaccines can have a killed version of the bug; 3. Vaccines can have a weakened, live version of a bug; and 4. New mRNA vaccines, which trigger an immune response by teaching our cells to make a protein or a piece of a protein.
The first coronavirus vaccines, including the Pfizer, BioNTech, and Moderna vaccines, contain genetic material known as messenger RNA (mRNA). mRNA contains the recipe for part of a protein similar to the one that infects our cells with the coronavirus (its characteristic “spike protein”). The production of that protein in the body triggers an immune response and the production of antibodies. Those antibodies will detect and destroy the virus if you’re to encounter the real thing.
But can vaccines make you or your child sick? Because they don’t contain live pathogens, it’s impossible for mRNA vaccines, protein-based vaccines, and those with a killed version of the bacterium or virus to cause you to fall ill. In live, attenuated vaccines, the bug is living but rendered useless. (While live vaccines are safe for most children, Alok explains, parents and guardians of immunocompromised children should talk to their doctor before a live vaccine, like that for measles, mumps, or rubella, is administered.)
After receiving any vaccine, you or your child may experience mild side-effects, like the sniffles or a low-grade fever, as well as sensitivity around the injection site. The extremely rare side-effects, seen in just one in 1 to 2 million children, are so uncommon that doctors can’t say with statistical confidence that they originate from a vaccine. And while doctors do take those rare reports very seriously, watch this episode and discover why they may seem more common than they actually are.
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