How the Covid-19 vaccine works

This shot is a messenger RNA vaccine, more commonly known as a mRNA vaccine. It is the first mRNA vaccine authorized for use in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

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An mRNA vaccine provides protection without the risk of getting sick with COVID-19.

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Many vaccines place a weakened germ into the body's system. An mRNA vaccine, instead, shows cells how to make a protein that initiates an immune response, according to the CDC. The vaccine is "tricking" the body to make these proteins.

Then, it produces antibodies to help protect someone against a virus that could potentially enter their body.

Because an mRNA vaccine doesn't use the live virus, it cannot give someone COVID-19, according to the CDC.

The mRNA also never enters the nucleus of the cell, meaning it does not affect or interact with our DNA.

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While the new, approved COVID-19 vaccines are the first mRNA vaccines to be licensed by the FDA, the technology has been in use for cancer research since at least 2011.

The CDC says "cancer research has used mRNA to trigger the immune system to target specific cancer cells."

  WFAA