What Are the Common Types of Vaccines?

Vaccines are a hot topic now due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many people have forgotten that we’ve been taking vaccines for ages. You likely have at least a dozen vaccines already!

If the vaccine hype has caused you to take a deep dive into the various types of vaccines, you’re in the right place. Beyond just different types of COVID vaccines, there are vaccines for all types of illnesses!

So what are vaccines? Vaccines are medications that work to immunize people to diseases or symptoms of diseases. But not all vaccines are alike.

Keep reading to learn a few facts about vaccines and the most common types of vaccines.

mRNA Vaccines

The mRNA vaccines have been popular in the news lately. The most common COVID-19 vaccines use mRNA technology!

While many people think that these vaccines are new, this isn’t true. These vaccines have been in the works for decades! They have brief manufacturing times and low manufacturing costs, making them great for widespread emergency use.

These vaccines trigger immune responses in the body via proteins that they synthesize. While there is some fearmongering going around about mRNA vaccines affecting DNA, this is untrue.

With the success of the COVID-19 vaccines, professionals like Dr. Kenneth Chien are working on more uses for mRNA vaccines.

Viral Vector Vaccines

Viral vector vaccines are another popular type of vaccine, and these vaccines are also used for COVID-19. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is a viral vector vaccine.

The vaccine is a virus that looks like the real virus but is actually modified to be harmless. This is a vector virus.

The vector virus gives information to the body about how to fight the real virus off. The immune system starts creating antibodies to fight off this pretend virus and then stores that information so it can fight off the real virus in the future.

Think of it like someone putting up a “wanted sign” of a criminal. The sign itself isn’t the criminal, but it’s giving information to the townspeople so they know what to do if they see the real person.

Live-Attenuated Vaccines

This is the most common type of vaccine. Doctors use it for chickenpox, mumps, rubella, and more. Almost everyone has had at least one live-attenuated vaccine.

These vaccines inject a real germ from the virus into the body. The germ is a weaker version so it shouldn’t cause any illness and it won’t be able to spread.

The germ causes the body to create memory B-cells that will “remember” the germ and build your body’s immunity against it. The immune response might feel like an illness, but it’s really a side effect of the vaccine and it’s nothing to worry about.

There Are Many Types of Vaccines

These are only a few of the common types of vaccines. Vaccines aren’t scary. They’re there to help your body build a wall and protect itself against harmful bacteria and viruses.

Keep yourself and your family safe by talking to your doctor about vaccines.

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