RNA based vaccines will be used for the first time. What does that mean?

December 24th 2020 - In a vaccine, the 'weakened' virus (or bacterium), or a part of it, is usually injected. The immune system recognizes the 'intruder' and produces antibodies that it will use when it encounters the 'real' virus. Instead, in the case of RNA vaccines the 'instructions' are injected to produce a particular protein, the so-called 'spike' protein, which is used by the virus 'stick' to cells. The cell then produces the 'foreign' protein on its own; once the foreign protein is recognized, it triggers the production of antibodies