The Student News Site of South Forsyth High School

The Bird Feed
The Student News Site of South Forsyth High School

The Bird Feed
The Student News Site of South Forsyth High School

The Bird Feed
Do you know the main differences between the vaccinations? In the US we have approved two mRNA vaccines- Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. These vaccines use mRNA instructions to make the S protein on the surface of the COVID-19 virus. This means there is NO virus in the vaccine! Just instructions for a protein of the virus. This causes your body to make antibodies against that spike protein- so if the virus enters your body, your immune system will immediately recognize that protein on the surface of the virus and begin to attack it, therefore destroying the virus before it can begin to harm you! Both of these vaccines have a fairly high efficacy rate, of between 94-95%, which is super significant. There are also a few viral vector vaccines out there- AstraZeneca is one which is being used in Europe, and Johnson & Johnson have created one that is working on getting approved soon here in the United States. These work by using a weakened virus different than COVID-19, like an adenovirus (common cold). The weakened virus serves as a delivery system- the S Protein from the COVID-19 virus was added into them (both mRNA and viral vector use some pretty cool DNA technology- shout out to biology class!)! So again, once this vaccine gets into your body your immune system is exposed to the S Protein and makes antibodies, which means you are prepared to destroy the real Covid-19 virus if it ever enters your body. Essentially, both types of vaccine use the S Protein as our identifier for Covid-19 in the body- the immune system will always be on the lookout for it! By being exposed to it safely via the vaccine, we know how to defeat it without getting sick! Think of the vaccine like a practice test- our immune system gets to figure out how to defeat it without the added time pressure of doing it fast- because the protein itself can’t harm us, only the entirety of a healthy virus can. When you actively become infected with COVID-19, your immune system is doing the same thing, but you have this time pressure of trying to figure it out faster than the virus is at damaging your body…and the virus usually wins. Vaccines are a much safer way to build that immunity! Image used from the CDC Website under Public Domain.

[Photo] The Effect of the COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout in Forsyth County

Naisha Roy and Grace Drawdy • March 1, 2021

Do you know the main differences between the vaccinations? In the US we have approved two mRNA vaccines- Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. These vaccines use mRNA instructions to make the S protein on...