How the COVID vaccine works

Teaching the body how to destroy the spike proteins is key

NOTE: This isn’t an Ex-Evangelical post, to be sure, but I think a lot of people might want to know about how the COVID vaccine works. This is the best explanation I could come up with after researching.

I’ve seen several questions about the COVID vaccine, and a little fear, and even a few people saying that they don’t want to take the vaccine since it’s so new, so I figured I’d put together a post that explains it a little more. I’m a nerd fascinated with science. I’m also a Technical Communicator with a specialization in molecular and cellular biology, so this is kind of my jam. What I’m not is an immunologist or virologist, so there might be an error or two in here, and I’m sure there are smarter people than me that might catch those and clarify my words. However, I wanted to give some insight on how the vaccine works, because it’s pretty cool and very safe.

First off, let’s talk just a little bit about the virus. We’ve all seen the pictures of the Corona virus that causes COVID. It looks like a little ball with spiky protrusions on it. The virus is basically a protein shell around a bit of genetic material. It’s a bit more complicated than that, but those are the important features. The “spikes” are one of the proteins, aptly named “spike proteins.” When the virus gets into your body, those spikes basically stick to your body’s cells, and work like little lock picks to open the cell, and that’s how the virus gets inside your cells. Once the virus is inside a cell, the genetic material inside the virus tells your cells to make copies of the virus itself. Those new viruses infect other cells in your body, and the next thing you know, you are sick.

Your body’s immune system will begin to recognize the various proteins of the virus, and will “learn” how to break down the proteins in the virus. It takes a few weeks for your body to learn, and in the meantime, you are still sick. Not great, but what is really cool is that once your body learns how to fight the virus, it “remembers” how to fight it, so if you come in contact with the coronavirus again, you have a better chance of your body fighting it off.

So how does the vaccine work? Here is where it gets pretty cool. The instructions to make all proteins in living organisms are contained in genetic material. In your body, DNA holds that code. When it is time to make a protein, your cells “read” the DNA and make specific “instructions” for that protein. These instructions are written in another type of genetic code called RNA. That RNA is a “messenger” for your cells to make a protein, and it’s very unimaginatively called “messenger RNA” or mRNA.

Scientists figured out the exact bit of genetic code needed to make the “spike” proteins around the edge of the coronavirus. Those scientists realized that if they could make people’s immune systems attack the “spike” protein, the virus couldn’t get into your cells and infect you. So they figured out the mRNA code for that spike protein, and only that protein, made lots of copies of that code, put it in a syringe, and, HOORAY, they had a vaccine.

That’s all the vaccine is. It’s a set of instructions to make one particular protein. By itself, the spike protein isn’t dangerous. Once you have been given the vaccine, the mRNA code goes into your cells, and the cells start making that protein. Your immune system sees this new protein and basically says “Hey! This Jerk doesn’t belong here. I’m going to destroy it.” Your immune system learns how to destroy the spike protein. The next time your immune system “sees” that protein it says “This bastard, again? I know what to do.” and it breaks down the protein again. Congratulations, you are immune!

After that, anytime you come in contact with the coronavirus, your body breaks down the spike proteins on the outside of the virus, and the virus can’t get into your cells, rendering it a useless ball of garbage that can’t harm you.

Your immune system is pretty cool, but like the rest of your body, it needs to train for a challenge. If you get infected with the virus, you’ll build an immunity, but not without getting sick at the same time. With the vaccine, you are training your body without getting sick.

Think of it this way. Getting the coronavirus is like expecting to be able to run a race without training. Sure, you can probably stumble through it, but you are going to feel terrible, hurt yourself, probably puke and wish you were dead the whole time. But if you train for it, you’ll get across the finish line feeling great and without a problem, because your body will know what to expect.

Another way to look would be to consider the coronavirus to be a giant textbook you have to read and memorize parts of to pass a test in school. The vaccine is a “cheat sheet” that has just the parts you need to memorize. You don’t really need to know all the information in the textbook to pass the test, just the important information.

Some of the questions I’ve heard: Will the vaccine rewrite your DNA? Nope. It doesn’t work that way. The vaccine is just a message that tells specific parts of your cells how to make a protein. It won’t turn you into a lizard person, and it won’t get in your DNA.

Second common question, if the vaccine is only 90% effective how good is that really? The answer to this question is a numbers game. Here is the best explanation I can come up with. If there is a room with 100 people in it, and someone gets infected with coronavirus, they will make more of the virus, and infect more people until eventually everybody gets it. But if 90 people are immune, and someone gets it, there is a good chance that person is immune and won’t infect people next to them. This is why we need as many people as possible to get vaccinated. If the majority of people are immune, the virus will stop spreading.

How is this different from herd immunity? The answer is that it’s not. If you are immune because of the virus or immune because of the vaccine, you still reduce the chance that the virus will spread from you. Either way, a lot of people have to be immune for that to happen, and personally, I’d rather be immune by not getting sick in the process.

Can you get sick from the vaccine? Not really. You might have an immune response right after the injection. Your immune system will treat the protein that the vaccine instructs your body to create as an invader, so you might get sore, feel bad for a little bit, or even run a low grade fever. However, you aren’t really sick. Your body is just reacting by trying to kill anything that COULD make you actually sick by using the tools it has to fight infection.

Why do we need two shots? The reason here goes back to that training comparison I made. Your first shot will train you for sure, and the second will keep the training going. More of your immune system will learn to fight the infection if you have a booster shot.

Will I be immune automatically? No. It takes time to build up immunity. Your body needs several weeks before you have immunity. Get your vaccine, keep wearing a mask, social distance, and wash your hands. It will be just a few weeks.

Will I be immune forever? We don’t know yet. Just like with exercise, your body may forget it’s training, so a yearly covid shot may be as important as a yearly flu shot. Or it might not. Only time will tell.

Is this a vaccine that was made and approved so quick really that safe? Yes. And while the production of this particular vaccine was pretty quick, scientists have been studying coronaviruses for over fifty years. The whole world has been working to prepare for this and we’ve had the technology to make this vaccine for years. We just needed to figure out exactly how to make it.

Is there a microchip in the vaccine? I doubt it. It would be an awful way to track people. I have a microchip in my dog and it takes my vet five minutes to find the damn thing with a scanner pressed up against my dog’s skin. It’s a little Sci-Fi to think that a chip could be used by satellites to track you from a distance of 22,000 miles up in space. Besides, you have a cell phone that broadcasts your location everywhere you take it and if you’re on Facebook, that company already has a pretty good idea of your social patterns. Speaking for myself, the government really doesn’t need a microchip to figure out that I’ll probably be wandering around a vineyard this Sunday.

Get poked, stay safe.