A: More than 10 vaccines are in development to fight COVID-19. The vaccines trigger the immune system in various ways to produce proteins called antibodies. The antibodies fight infection and prevent the virus from spreading throughout the body. None of these vaccines will cause COVID-19. Several types of COVID-19 vaccines are in development:
- In one type, the virus is inactivated (killed) so it can’t multiply but still can trigger an immune response. That type is used for polio, hepatitis A and flu vaccines.
- Another type uses only part of the virus to trigger an immune response. For COVID-19, the vaccines target a protein on the surface on the virus called the spike protein.
- A third type, known as a viral vector vaccine, uses part of the virus to trigger an immune response. For the COVID-19 vaccine, the spike protein is inserted into another virus. That virus can infect human cells and trigger an immune response but doesn’t cause a severe reaction.