Index Entries

Updated September 22, 2023
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

"Types of Vaccines: mRNA, and Protein Subunit

Facts about COVID-19 Vaccines

There are different types of vaccines.

  • All COVID-19 vaccines prompt our bodies to recognize and help protect us from the virus that causes COVID-19.
  • Currently, there are two types of COVID-19 vaccines for use in the United States: mRNA, and protein subunit vaccines.

None of these vaccines can give you COVID-19.

  • Vaccines do not use any live virus.
  • Vaccines cannot cause infection with the virus that causes COVID-19 or other viruses.

They do not affect or interact with our DNA.

  • These vaccines do not enter the nucleus of the cell where our DNA (genetic material) is located, so it cannot change or influence our genes.

mRNA vaccines (Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna)

To trigger an immune response, many vaccines put a weakened or inactivated germ into our bodies. Not mRNA vaccines. Instead, mRNA vaccines use mRNA created in a laboratory to teach our cells how to make a protein—or even just a piece of a protein—that triggers an immune response inside our bodies. This immune response, which produces antibodies, is what helps protect us from getting sick from that germ in the future."

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