Question: What does the vaccine have in it

James Blackshaw answered on 21 Mar 2022:

That’s a good question, because a vaccine for each disease has to have slightly different things in. Vaccines teach your immune system to recognise and kill invading bacteria and viruses before they can make you ill. Think of it like target practice for your body’s defences.

Sometimes they use dead or ‘broken’ versions of the bacteria or viruses. They can’t make you ill, but your white blood cells will attack the broken germs and learn how to fight the real ones.

Sometimes they contain parts of the virus or bacteria, so your body will learn to recognise that and go “If I see anything with this part on it, that’s a bad thing and I need to get rid of it.”

The really clever ones contain the instructions for your body to make its own targets. Your body makes some practice parts that look just like the ones a bacteria or virus would have, and shows it to your immune system. Then when it sees the real thing, it can get to work.

I believe that most of the COVID vaccine doses that have been given in the UK are the last sort.