1/ Q: I heard you say on Facebook Live that the new #Covid_19 vaccine candidate from @moderna_tx is a "new type" of vaccine. Can you explain that?

A: The vaccine candidate is called an mRNA vaccine and works is differently than previous vaccines that you have likely had. Read on

2/ In order to explain this, we’re going to take a deeper dive into how a vaccine prevents infections.

Basically, vaccines give your #ImmuneSystem the fingerprints of a particular virus in advance.
so that it can prevent infection when it encounters that virus in the wild.

3/ More specifically, all the vaccines we know and love contain antigens: bits of the target pathogen (e.g., measles or influenza virus) that are dead or weakened.
Since the virus is inactivated, it can’t actually infect you, but your immune system doesn’t know this.

4/ The antigens are recognized by your body’s immune system as a threat, and the immune system responds to keep you healthy by making specialized cells.

5/ Your immune system remembers stores these "viral fingerprints" for quick reference.
This is known as the adaptive immune system: cellular memory that allows your immune system to respond more effectively when you encounter the virus again.

6/ Of course, when you encounter it “in the wild,” the virus won’t be inactivated, so the efficiency of the immune response will (usually) keep you from getting a full-blown infection. Or it will at least reduce the severity of the infection, if it doesn't prevent it entirely.

7/ But there is, theoretically at least, another way to give your immune system those viral fingerprints. An mRNA vaccine uses your own body’s cell-building structures to MAKE the antigen.