Health care workers answer questions about the COVID-19 vaccines.
Gina Gregory-Burns, MD, explains that the COVID vaccines do not use a live virus and cannot give you COVID.
So the big answer is no. And the reason being is we are not injecting the virus into your body. What these two vaccines do – the two different companies manufacturers – are injecting, what we call mRNA – messenger RNA – it’s a little bit of genetic material into your body.
Your body then recognizes that as something foreign and develops what we call antibodies or warriors against that mRNA. That way those warriors will come stay in your body. And the next time that you are exposed to the real virus out in the real world, after you’ve had both injections, after your body has had an appropriate immune response, then in the future, when your body’s exposed to the real virus, it will recognize a little tiny bit of genetic material and bring out even more warriors or antibodies and fight off the virus. And that’s how we get 94% efficacy or safety against the virus.
