Vaccines are combat training for your immune system. They show it what to expect from a virus/bacteria so your cells can build a better defense when the actual pathogen arrives.
Usually, a vaccine gives your immune system dead or weakened pathogens so it can mount a specialized defense. Say an invading army is coming and you capture some soldiers and their weapons. You'll be in a much better position to repel the invasion than if caught by surprise!
mRNA vaccines, like Moderna & Pfizer/BioNTech's, work differently. They give your cells the blueprints for a piece of the virus, so your cells can build that piece (which, on its own, can't hurt you), study it, & be ready to attack it & the virus it's attached to when it shows up
It's kind of like instead of capturing the invading army's soldiers and weapons, you've got the 3D-printer files for their tanks and bombs and guns, and so now you can make them yourself, find every little weakness, and destroy them on sight if they actually arrive.
(If you have questions about the COVID-19 vaccines, check out this very comprehensive piece by @tarahaelle elemental.medium.com/amp/p/9a0eeb33…)

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More from @AstroKatie

9 Dec
SpaceX #Starship launch attempt scheduled to start in five minutes or so... #SN8
This is the rescheduled launch attempt after the last-second abort yesterday:
Read 6 tweets
9 Dec
If you give my book as a gift you can write on the card "I will love you until the end of the universe"! It's really a very romantic kind of present!!
"Unlike the Higgs vacuum, my love for you will never decay"
"The cosmos may succumb to a Heat Death due to the second law of thermodynamics, but the first law of MY HEART is that I love you"
Read 6 tweets
8 Dec
SpaceX is about to do a high-altitude test flight of its Starship prototype, in about two minutes theverge.com/2020/12/8/2216… spacex.com/vehicles/stars…
Or... not. Abort. Alas.
The #Starship prototype did not launch but it ALSO did not explode so I think this is a "successful failure" situation and the data will be helpful to the engineers as they set up for the next try. #SN8
Read 4 tweets
7 Dec
I keep thinking about how the public and government response to COVID might be different if (sensible) patient privacy rules and safety concerns didn't prevent TV crews from constantly broadcasting close-up dispatches from inside the ICU front lines.
Comparing US fatalities from COVID-19 with those from wars makes it clear it's not because the pandemic is less deadly that so little is being done on a national level. I think it's partly because we mostly don't actually see it happen.
Note: I'm NOT saying we SHOULD put TV cameras in patient rooms. I don't think that's a good or simple solution. I'm just thinking about the implications of this all being behind closed doors.
Read 4 tweets
26 Nov
Hello everyone just letting you know I am going to attempt to bake a pecan pie
This is the pecan pie recipe I’m using: thebigmansworld.com/wprm_print/351… It requires a high-speed blender, which I don’t have!!, so this will be an interesting experiment in adaptation! I’m using a mini food processor instead. It’s, um, trying very hard.
Pie update: Pie crust with brown pecan-pie filling in it. Mostly not tooPie crust with brown pecan pie filling plus pecan halves on
Read 4 tweets
23 Nov
Just my two cents but if schools are closing because some threshold level of community transmission has been reached the correct response is not "we should have decided to keep schools open no matter what" it is "we should have closed other things so schools could stay open."
(this tweet brought to you by yet another morning yelling at The Daily podcast)
Yes, be mad at the mayor for the fact that schools are closing while bars and restaurants are not. But not because it's UNFAIR that bars and restaurants can stay open and schools can't, but because bars and restaurants staying open is WHY schools had to close.
Read 4 tweets

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