A biologist explains what proteins do in viruses, how they interact with human cells, how the vaccine delivers mRNA into the cell and how antibodies protect us.
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Articles on mRNA vaccines
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Two pharmacists involved in COVID-19 vaccine preparation explain the role pharmacists are poised to play in expanding vaccine access.
Perhaps you’ve heard mRNA vaccines cause autoimmune disease, or connect you to the internet. Now the Pfizer vaccine has been approved in Australia, it’s important we iron out these misconceptions.
Historically, we immunized children against diseases like polio that were a clear danger to them, but COVID-19 is usually mild in children. However, herd immunity is unlikely without vaccinating kids.
Rollout of COVID-19 vaccines has begun. But getting the jab doesn’t mean abandoning masks, distancing and handwashing. Here’s why the current preventive measures must continue post-vaccine.
The best approach for protecting everyone’s health will require us to provide different vaccines to different people according to need and availability.
We should applaud drug companies for developing COVID-19 vaccines in record time, but let’s not be under any illusion about the profits that are motivating them.
Vaccine hesitancy is not new, but it has a new element: few people can remember the devastating impact of diseases such as smallpox and polio and it is hard to see the lives saved by vaccination.
Because Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines have been developed in record time, many wonder whether companies cut corners or compromised safety.
Two pharma companies have announced early COVID-19 vaccine trial results with over 90 per cent effectiveness. What does that mean for getting back to normal?
Canada has set aside a total of 414 million doses of different types of vaccine. Some exploit known mechanisms, others are based on previously untested approaches.
Interim analysis of trial data isn’t unusual – but leaves us with many things we still need to find out.
Early analysis suggests this vaccine has an efficacy of over 90%. So if you took ten people who were going to get sick from COVID-19 and vaccinated them, only one would get sick.
Two more COVID-19 vaccines may now be on the cards for Australia, should they pass clinical trials. But, as with earlier vaccine deals, there are no guarantees.
So-called mRNA vaccines are among the frontrunners in the global race to design a COVID vaccine. But as a new technology, most nations, including Australia, lack the capacity to produce them at scale.
Results from phase 1 trials of a COVID-19 mRNA vaccine created a burst of optimism. But details the company failed to release suggest it is too early to speculate whether the vaccine is effective.
Top contributors
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Associate Professor and ARC Future Fellow, The University of Western Australia
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Professor of Microbiology, School of Medicine, University of Washington
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Professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, University of South Carolina
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Professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, University of South Carolina
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Pediatric Infectious Diseases Fellow, University of Pittsburgh
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Research associate, Warren Alpert Medical School, Brown University, Brown University
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Professor of Medicine, University of Virginia
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Postdoctoral Research Fellow, RNA Biology and Biochemistry, Brighton and Sussex Medical School
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Early Career Research Leader, Emerging Viruses, Inflammation and Therapeutics Group, Menzies Health Institute Queensland, Griffith University
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Associate Professor of Biology, Rochester Institute of Technology
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Vice-Chancellor's Research Fellow, School of Health and Biomedical Sciences, RMIT University
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Australia's Chief Scientist, Office of the Chief Scientist
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Bioengineer and Research Fellow, Monash University
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Professor and Department Chair of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology, University of Pittsburgh
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Professor of Biomedical Sciences, Anglia Ruskin University
