What Are Vaccines and How Do They Work?

Vaccines are one of humanity’s greatest triumphs, and now save more lives than any other medical procedure. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccines were mostly deployed against viruses that had plagued humans for centuries, such as measles and smallpox. By the time COVID-19 struck, researchers had been working on a new type of vaccine—a messenger RNA or mRNA vaccine—for decades.

#Vaccines #COVID19 #Science #Pandemic #mRNA

What does George Washington have to do with vaccines? Watch this video to discover how fighting infectious disease helped win the American Revolution. People all over the world have been using antiviral technologies for centuries. The COVID-19 mRNA vaccines drew on decades of knowledge and research for their development.

For more about the science of viruses and vaccines, visit the American Museum of Natural History’s COVID-19 resource hub: https://www.amnh.org/explore/viruses-vaccines-pandemic-science

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Generous support for the COVID-19 Resource Hub and its related teacher professional development programs has been provided by the Irma and Paul Milstein Family.

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SOURCES:
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Becker, Ann M. “Smallpox in Washington's Army: Strategic Implications of the Disease during the American Revolutionary War.” The Journal of Military History, vol. 68, no. 2, 2004, pp. 381–430., https://doi.org/10.1353/jmh.2004.0012.

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Moon, Nahm. “Covid-19 MRNA Vaccines: How Could Anything Developed This Quickly Be Safe?” University of Alabama at Birmingham, 25 May 2021, https://www.uab.edu/news/youcanuse/item/12059-covid-19-mrna-vaccines-how-could-anything-developed-this-quickly-be-safe. Accessed 9 Nov. 2021.

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Washington, George. “General Orders: Head-Quarters, New-York, August 1 to August 5.” Northern Illinois University Digital Library, 5 Aug. 1776, https://digital.lib.niu.edu/islandora/object/niu-amarch%3A93326. Accessed 9 Nov. 2021.

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Видео What Are Vaccines and How Do They Work? канала American Museum of Natural History