(10 Nov 2020) LEAD IN:
Scientists are advising caution following Pfizer’s announcement that its COVID-19 vaccine candidate is more than 90 percent effective.
The vaccine has been tested on 43,500 people in six countries without raising safety concerns, but not all of the scientific data has been released yet.
This is how the vaccine is said to work.
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Pfizer is one of several companies doing final stage testing of COVID-19 vaccines.
Pfizer’s vaccine candidate isn’t made with the actual coronavirus.
Instead it’s made with the genetic code for a spike protein which coats the surface of the coronavirus.
By injecting a vaccine containing that code called mRNA the body’s cells make some of the harmless protein.
The dose of the vaccine is just enough for the immune system to respond, priming it to react if it later encounters the real virus.
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