Linking to a non-federal web site does not represent an endorsement by CDC or any of its workers of the sponsors or the knowledge and merchandise presented on the website. Future mRNA vaccine technology could permit for one vaccine to provide protection towards multiple diseases, thus lowering the number of shots needed for defense against common vaccine-preventable illnesses Network. To set off an immune response, many vaccines put a weakened or inactivated germ into our bodies. Instead, mRNA vaccines use mRNA created in a laboratory to show our cells the means to make a protein—or even just a piece of a protein—that triggers an immune response inside our bodies. That immune response, which produces antibodies, is what protects us from getting infected if the real virus enters our bodies. However, researchers have been learning and dealing with mRNA vaccines for decades.

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