How Vaccines Work

Vaccination is a big word with incredibly nuanced elements, so understanding their importance can feel like an immense task. That’s why we’re breaking down what it is about vaccines that make them so important to modern medicine.

In essence, a vaccine contains the virus that it’s protecting against! That is to say, a weakened or inactive part of the virus (also known as an antigen).

This familiarises your body with the pathogen’s biological makeup, so when it encounters the real thing, it will know how to counter it. Pretty smart, huh?