Your new antibodies and immune cells will protect you from illness if you are exposed to COVID-19 virus in the future by remembering how to attack the spike protein.Your new antibodies will attack the spike proteins.Blocking this entrance prevents infection. This is important for protection from disease because the spike protein is what attaches to human cells, allowing the virus to enter. Your immune system responds to spike proteins by making antibodies that bind to and block the spike protein on the virus’s surface.Once the structure of the genes was known, especially of the spike protein that allows that virus to fuse with and enter our cells, scientists were able to quickly create the vaccine and start the clinical trials that have resulted in the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines that have been approved for use by Health Canada.īelow is an explanation of how the Pfizer-BioNtech and Moderna mRNA COVID-19 vaccines work with your body’s immune response to fight off the COVID-19 virus.ĬOVID-19 mRNA vaccines tell your body to make "spike proteins" (these cover the outside of the virus and allow it to attach to and enter our cells) specific to virus that causes COVID-19.
Shortly after COVID-19 was identified scientists were able to map the genes that make up the COVID-19 virus. MRNA technology has been studied for more than 10 years, most often in cancer research and treatment as well as in the development of new vaccines against such infections as pandemic influenza and rabies.
It's much safer for your immune system to learn this through vaccination than by catching the diseases and attempting to treat them. Vaccines teach your immune system how to protect you from diseases.