Non-trivial, as we programmers say, but this is a very clear description of how one COVID vaccine works. If you want to know the details, it’s complicated but fascinating. I was particularly intrigued by how much we understand and can manipulate at a very basic level of our own biology:
An mRNA vaccine achieves the same thing (‘educate our immune system’) but in a laser like way. And I mean this in both senses – very narrow but also very powerful.
So here is how it works. The injection contains volatile genetic material that describes the famous SARS-CoV-2 ‘Spike’ protein. Through clever chemical means, the vaccine manages to get this genetic material into some of our cells.
These then dutifully start producing SARS-CoV-2 Spike proteins in large enough quantities that our immune system springs into action. Confronted with Spike proteins, and (importantly) tell-tale signs that cells have been taken over, our immune system develops a powerful response against multiple aspects of the Spike protein AND the production process.
And this is what gets us to the 95% efficient vaccine.
https://berthub.eu/articles/posts/reverse-engineering-source-code-of-the-biontech-pfizer-vaccine/
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