Vaccine Technology: How mRNA Changed the Fight Against Covid-19

From Courthouse News.com by Nina Pullano

Focusing on genetic material called mRNA allowed researchers to overcome scientific barriers and develop the two vaccines now used in the United States. Here’s how it happened. 

The United States marked a new age in vaccine science when the first candidates it deployed against the coronavirus also marked the first time a vaccine has relied on messenger RNA, or mRNA.

Like all vaccines, the goal of mRNA vaccines is to prime the immune system to respond to a specific foreign agent. In preventing the spread of Covid-19, the target is the pandemic-unleashing coronavirus known as SARS-CoV-2.