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How the vaccine protects you

  • Prevents you from getting infected and having COVID-19 symptoms, or severe illness.
  • You could have no COVID-19 symptoms or will have much fewer , milder symptoms and recover faster.
  • The vaccine cannot give you COVID-19.
  • The vaccine does not affect your DNA.

mRNA vaccines

The Pfizer vaccine (Comirnaty) is an mRNA vaccine that contains the genetic code for an important part of the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) virus called the ‘spike protein’. Spike proteins are the little projections on the surface of the virus.

  1. Once you’ve had the vaccine, your body reads the genetic code and makes copies of the spike protein.
  2. Your immune system detects these spike proteins and learns how to recognise and fight against COVID-19. It knows it needs to attack the virus to protect it from spreading in your body.
  3. The genetic code then gets broken down and removed very quickly and easily by our body.