How do COVID-19 vaccines actually work?

As many countries battle a difficult second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, light at the end of the tunnel has been offered by the rapid approval and deployment of several new vaccines.

Previously, it took many years to develop and bring new vaccines to market. But with a global emergency, significant funding, and volunteer participants in the trials, scientists were able to come up with a range of vaccines in just one year.

SHAVER examines how vaccines are traditionally produced and explores the four main vaccines currently in use in the fight against SARS-CoV-2.

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The speed at which these vaccines have not only been developed and approved, but also produced on a large scale, is a remarkable scientific achievement.

As the pandemic changes gears with the arrival of new variants, there are concerns that this could impact the effectiveness of vaccines.

But there is hope. These new vaccine methods are based on the genomic sequencing of the virus, using its genetic code to produce the spike protein.

This means that with new variations, the code can be updated while the processes remain the same, meaning that new, updated vaccines can be developed and produced quickly, which helps us to keep length of time. ahead of the global pandemic.