How mRNA Vaccines Work - Simply Explained

mRNA vaccines have to potential to end the COVID19 pandemic. How do they work? Are they safe? And how could they've been developed so quickly?

The main idea of mRNA vaccines is to trick our bodies to produce part of a virus. This kickstarts our immune response, without getting us sick. All that's needed is a part of the virus's DNA or RNA, packaged into mRNA. Cool!

(mRNA is the technology behind the vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna & CureVac)

💡 Follow-up video
I answer 10 of your mostly asked questions (and address some misconceptions).

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[scofah]

I really appreciate how you didn't have any background music or sound effects in this video. I'm so tired of all the noise/racket in the background of videos.

[morgancr]

I'm concerned about the profit motive of pharmaceutical companies that produces vaccines. I don't want to support an industry that prioritizes profits over people's lives.

[tonymak]

So that's the theory. But what about all the spike proteins travelling around the body and causing mayhem in vital organs?

[Jurassiic]

At 3:05 it says you don’t get sick but many people have gotten sick with the injection, how come ?

[panamahub]

so basically you don't need the whole enemy to train your soldiers only show them how the enemy's weapon look like.

[Christophers_Crafts]

Then why are people getting so sick after the second dose?

[john-cpkx]

The problem is that spikes circulate in the blood and the complex of spike and antibody may deposit itself on the cells of blood vessels causing an inflammatory reaction that damages the cells lining the blood vessels.

[JoannaLaurensings]

So if you can’t get sick, why are some people getting symptoms after taking it?

[Praestantia]

I swear the thought process that went into these vaccines was clever as hell. Like, who thinks of using our own body to make the key markers of a virus which it will use to identify said virus? That's the most ingenious piece of biomedical engineering idea I've ever heard of.

[revelations]

I like your explanation. However, it must be cautioned that this technology does not have a track record. What will happen when this synthetic rna is produced in other parts of the body? In the case of covid, what about the lipid enclosed nano particles? They are basically tricking the cells into making a synthetic compound. What is being used to create this synthetic compound? What happens to the synthetic compound that was used to create this protein? Can the nano particles be remotely manipulated? How is it possible for the vaccine to enter the cells?

[andrewhate]

Why do we need second dose if our immune systems already know that thing

[vasia]

Don't forget to watch what Dr Robert Malone (he contributed in the creation of mrna vaccines) has said about these vaccines

[carolejackson]

Good simple explanation but missing important parts like how does the body stop this loop of continuing to make the spike proteins. And what are the long term affects.

[uyeqhgs]

My concern is that this is the first time mRNA has been used on humans in such a wide scale before. The experts say it is safe, but how can we know for sure that there will not be long term side effects?

[xxkq]

I had the 2nd dose of Moderna recently and had pretty bad flu symptoms for about 24 hours (headache especially when moving quickly, muscle pains, fever, skin sensitivity, fatigue etc.). This video says there are few side effects because there is no live virus but side effects are pretty common at least for Moderna and Pfizer, so what is the mechanism that causes this? Immune system overreacting to the spike proteins?

[heffheather]

Wait, so what happens if your immune system starts attacking your own cells because they now contain the mRNA of the spikes in their own cells?

[theorialogos]

Very good explanation, thank you.
Many people I know who get vaccinated get sick almost immediately with covid type symptoms. Why is that?

[shadowman]

Still doesn't explain what happens to the cells that manufactured the mrna.

[Chipchase]

This is the best and clearest explanation of mRNA vaccines I have heard so far. Excellent !

[asymmetricfuzion]

Dude. Thank you. I’ve recently got the new kurzgesagt book on immunology. It’s great but I either haven’t got to the MRNa but yet or it’s not covered. But I keep hearing about it and I keep hearing about “MRNa entering the cells nucleus” which sounded like bullshit. This totally clears up what the MRNa does so thank you 🙏