{"id":16772,"date":"2020-12-02T14:06:42","date_gmt":"2020-12-02T14:06:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/factcheckni.org\/?p=16772"},"modified":"2022-02-26T22:52:24","modified_gmt":"2022-02-26T22:52:24","slug":"the-covid-19-mrna-vaccine-what-is-it-and-how-has-it-been-developed-so-quickly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/factcheckni.org\/topics\/health\/the-covid-19-mrna-vaccine-what-is-it-and-how-has-it-been-developed-so-quickly\/","title":{"rendered":"The COVID-19 mRNA vaccine: What is it and how has it been developed so quickly?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>The Pfizer\/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine has been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/news\/uk-authorises-pfizer-biontech-covid-19-vaccine\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">approved for use in the UK<\/a> from the week commencing 6 December 2020. This means that the UK has become the first country in the world to approve the vaccine for widespread use. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/news\/uk-medicines-regulator-gives-approval-for-first-uk-covid-19-vaccine\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">MHRA<\/a>, the British regulator, says the jab, which offers up to 95% protection against Covid-19 illness, is safe for distribution.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"http:\/\/factcheckni.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/poster-2-twitter-banner-COVID19-mRNA-Vaccine-1024x576.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-20028\" srcset=\"https:\/\/factcheckni.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/poster-2-twitter-banner-COVID19-mRNA-Vaccine-1024x576.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/factcheckni.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/poster-2-twitter-banner-COVID19-mRNA-Vaccine-300x169.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/factcheckni.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/poster-2-twitter-banner-COVID19-mRNA-Vaccine-768x432.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/factcheckni.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/poster-2-twitter-banner-COVID19-mRNA-Vaccine-65x37.jpeg 65w, https:\/\/factcheckni.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/poster-2-twitter-banner-COVID19-mRNA-Vaccine-150x84.jpeg 150w, https:\/\/factcheckni.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/poster-2-twitter-banner-COVID19-mRNA-Vaccine-75x42.jpeg 75w, https:\/\/factcheckni.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/poster-2-twitter-banner-COVID19-mRNA-Vaccine-71x40.jpeg 71w, https:\/\/factcheckni.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/poster-2-twitter-banner-COVID19-mRNA-Vaccine.jpeg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To date, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhs.uk\/conditions\/coronavirus-covid-19\/coronavirus-vaccination\/coronavirus-vaccine\/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI7LjTma2v7QIVo-_tCh0KnQ1wEAAYASAAEgKHVfD_BwE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">thousands of people have been given a COVID-19 vaccine<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and no serious side effects or complications have been reported.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is not the only vaccine which has been developed, or is under development. The <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.who.int\/publications\/m\/item\/draft-landscape-of-covid-19-candidate-vaccines\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">World Health Organisation (WHO)<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is monitoring data from more than 200 vaccine trials.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In August 2020, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/news\/new-measures-to-support-development-of-safe-covid-19-vaccines-for-uk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the UK government announced<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> new measures to support the development of safe COVID-19 vaccines for the UK. The measures included:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">reinforced safeguards to support the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/collections\/mhra-guidance-on-coronavirus-covid-19\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA)<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to grant temporary authorisation for the use of a new COVID-19 vaccine, provided it meets the highest safety and quality standards;<\/span><\/li><li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">expanding the trained workforce who can administer COVID-19 and flu vaccines to improve access and protect the public; and&nbsp;<\/span><\/li><li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">clarifying the scope of the protection from civil liability for the additional workforce that could be allowed to administer vaccinations.&nbsp;<\/span><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><b>What are vaccines?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.who.int\/news-room\/q-a-detail\/vaccines-and-immunization-what-is-vaccination?adgroupsurvey=%7Badgroupsurvey%7D&amp;gclid=EAIaIQobChMIlLXE9_qu7QIVIe_tCh07AQ2DEAAYASAAEgLCifD_BwE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">WHO describes vaccination<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in the following terms:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Vaccination is a simple, safe, and effective way of protecting people against harmful diseases, before they come into contact with them. It uses your body\u2019s natural defenses to build resistance to specific infections and makes your immune system stronger.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They go on to explain how vaccines work once administered:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Vaccines train your immune system to create antibodies, just as it does when it\u2019s exposed to a disease. However, because vaccines contain only killed or weakened forms of germs like viruses or bacteria, they do not cause the disease or put you at risk of its complications.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><b>What is this COVID-19 mRNA vaccine?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/coronavirus\/2019-ncov\/vaccines\/different-vaccines\/mrna.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> described this COVID-19 vaccine as a messenger RNA vaccine \u2014 or a mRNA vaccine.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This type of vaccine <\/span><b>does not<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> put a weakened or inactivated germ into our bodies. Rather, mRNA teaches our cells how to make a protein \u2014 or even just a piece of a protein \u2014 that triggers an immune response inside our bodies. COVID-19 mRNA vaccines give instructions for our cells to make a harmless piece of what is called <\/span>the<b> \u201cspike protein\u201d<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This \u201cspike protein\u201d is found on the surface of the virus that causes COVID-19. The immune response to this \u2014 our body\u2019s production of\u00a0 antibodies \u2014 is what protects us from getting infected if the real virus enters our bodies.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.phgfoundation.org\/briefing\/rna-vaccines\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It has been explained<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that a major advantage of RNA vaccines is that RNA can be produced in the laboratory from a DNA template using readily available materials, less expensively and faster than conventional vaccine production.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"724\" src=\"http:\/\/factcheckni.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/poster-2-COVID19-mRNA-Vaccine-1024x724.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-20027\" srcset=\"https:\/\/factcheckni.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/poster-2-COVID19-mRNA-Vaccine-1024x724.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/factcheckni.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/poster-2-COVID19-mRNA-Vaccine-300x212.jpg 300w, https:\/\/factcheckni.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/poster-2-COVID19-mRNA-Vaccine-768x543.jpg 768w, https:\/\/factcheckni.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/poster-2-COVID19-mRNA-Vaccine-1536x1086.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/factcheckni.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/poster-2-COVID19-mRNA-Vaccine-2048x1448.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/factcheckni.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/poster-2-COVID19-mRNA-Vaccine-65x46.jpg 65w, https:\/\/factcheckni.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/poster-2-COVID19-mRNA-Vaccine-150x106.jpg 150w, https:\/\/factcheckni.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/poster-2-COVID19-mRNA-Vaccine-71x50.jpg 71w, https:\/\/factcheckni.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/poster-2-COVID19-mRNA-Vaccine-57x40.jpg 57w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><b>How has this vaccine been developed?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This vaccine has followed all of the standard stages and processes of development. The vaccine <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/health-55056016\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">had to complete each phase<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> before progressing to the next. No stages of development were omitted. The phases include:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol><li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Phase I \u2014 vaccine tested on a small number of people to check it is safe<\/span><\/li><li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Phase II \u2014 safety tests in a greater number of people, and to look for signs the vaccine is producing the required response<\/span><\/li><li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Phase III \u2014 a big trial, involving thousands of people, to prove it protects people<\/span><\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/interactive\/2020\/science\/coronavirus-vaccine-tracker.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">New York Times Vaccine Tracker<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> has a very clear explanation of processes involved in the wider vaccine development processes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><b>How can a vaccine be developed so quickly?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The idea that this vaccine has been developed so quickly perhaps underplays the impact of wider conditions on the development of a COVID-19 vaccine.\u00a0 In particular, three conditions stand out:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol><li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">pre-existing knowledge and development of vaccines;<\/span><\/li><li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">financing\/funding; and&nbsp;<\/span><\/li><li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">accelerated trials.<\/span><\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p><b><i>Pre-existing knowledge and development of vaccines<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/health-55041371\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">BBC reported<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the explanation of the speedy development of the Oxford vaccine was a result of what scientists already knew about this type of virus. \u00a0This is also the case for the\u00a0Pfizer\/BioNTech vaccine, where scientists understood the biology of the virus and how it behaved, and most importantly that they needed to build the designing the mRNA instructions for cells to build the unique \u201cspike protein\u201d into the mRNA vaccine.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All this prior knowledge and understanding of the virus would be useless without the capacity &#8211; and indeed, the money \u2014 to develop the vaccine.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><b><i>Financing\/funding<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The scale of the<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/covid19.who.int\/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIrJ_Uzaav7QIVDNTtCh0bXAOJEAAYASAAEgKzqvD_BwE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> global rates of COVID-19 infections and deaths <\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, as well as the impact on the global economy, means that efforts to find a vaccine received unprecedented funds, and in a manner which reduced the usual level of bureaucratic issues of access to funds for scientific research.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><b><i>Accelerated clinical research<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With an increase in funding and finance of the COVID-19 vaccine development, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thelancet.com\/journals\/lancet\/article\/PIIS0140-6736(20)30798-4\/fulltext\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">came an acceleration in the associated clinical research.<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><b>Is it safe?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.who.int\/news-room\/q-a-detail\/coronavirus-disease-(covid-19)-vaccines?adgroupsurvey=%7Badgroupsurvey%7D&amp;gclid=EAIaIQobChMIm8bc9Kqv7QIVEdTtCh37ngr7EAAYASAAEgKEcvD_BwE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The WHO explain<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201c[T]here are many strict protections in place to help ensure that COVID-19 vaccines will be safe. Like all vaccines, COVID-19 vaccines should go through a rigorous, multi-stage testing process, including large (phase III) trials that involve tens of thousands of people. These trials, which include people at high risk for COVID-19, are specifically designed to identify any common side effects or other safety concerns.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the UK, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/news\/uk-medicines-regulator-gives-approval-for-first-uk-covid-19-vaccine\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA)<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> have stated that a dedicated team of MHRA scientists and clinicians carried out a rigorous, scientific and detailed review of all the available data, which started in October 2020. This constituted what they called \u201ca rolling review\u201d.\u00a0 A \u201crolling review\u201d can be used to complete the assessment of a vaccine during a public health emergency in the shortest time possible.\u00a0 It effectively works with and considers the data as it becomes available.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To date, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhs.uk\/conditions\/coronavirus-covid-19\/coronavirus-vaccination\/coronavirus-vaccine\/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI7LjTma2v7QIVo-_tCh0KnQ1wEAAYASAAEgKHVfD_BwE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">thousands of people have been given a covid-19 vaccine<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and no serious side effects or complications have been reported.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Pfizer\/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine has been approved for use in the UK from the week commencing 6 December 2020. This means that the UK has become the first country in the world to approve the vaccine for widespread use. MHRA, the British regulator, says the jab, which offers up to 95% protection against Covid-19 illness,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21534,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,30],"tags":[205,238,240],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The COVID-19 mRNA vaccine: What is it and how has it been developed so quickly? - FactCheckNI<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/factcheckni.org\/topics\/health\/the-covid-19-mrna-vaccine-what-is-it-and-how-has-it-been-developed-so-quickly\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The COVID-19 mRNA vaccine: What is it and how has it been developed so quickly? - FactCheckNI\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Pfizer\/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine has been approved for use in the UK from the week commencing 6 December 2020. This means that the UK has become the first country in the world to approve the vaccine for widespread use. MHRA, the British regulator, says the jab, which offers up to 95% protection against Covid-19 illness,...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/factcheckni.org\/topics\/health\/the-covid-19-mrna-vaccine-what-is-it-and-how-has-it-been-developed-so-quickly\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FactCheckNI\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/factcheckni\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-12-02T14:06:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-02-26T22:52:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/factcheckni.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/vax-development-.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"FactCheckNI\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@FactCheckNI\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@FactCheckNI\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"FactCheckNI\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/factcheckni.org\/topics\/health\/the-covid-19-mrna-vaccine-what-is-it-and-how-has-it-been-developed-so-quickly\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/factcheckni.org\/topics\/health\/the-covid-19-mrna-vaccine-what-is-it-and-how-has-it-been-developed-so-quickly\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"FactCheckNI\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/factcheckni.org\/#\/schema\/person\/85d1ea0fa0159339bdadca79e73ec7fa\"},\"headline\":\"The COVID-19 mRNA vaccine: What is it and how has it been developed so quickly?\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-12-02T14:06:42+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-02-26T22:52:24+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/factcheckni.org\/topics\/health\/the-covid-19-mrna-vaccine-what-is-it-and-how-has-it-been-developed-so-quickly\/\"},\"wordCount\":998,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/factcheckni.org\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/factcheckni.org\/topics\/health\/the-covid-19-mrna-vaccine-what-is-it-and-how-has-it-been-developed-so-quickly\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/factcheckni.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/vax-development-.png\",\"keywords\":[\"COVID-19\",\"public health\",\"vaccine\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Explainer\",\"Health\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/factcheckni.org\/topics\/health\/the-covid-19-mrna-vaccine-what-is-it-and-how-has-it-been-developed-so-quickly\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/factcheckni.org\/topics\/health\/the-covid-19-mrna-vaccine-what-is-it-and-how-has-it-been-developed-so-quickly\/\",\"name\":\"The COVID-19 mRNA vaccine: What is it and how has it been developed so quickly? 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