MEMPHIS, Tenn — What's in the Covid-19 vaccine?
"The vaccine is actually very simple, and I'll try to be brief with this Katina," said ER Physician Dr. Kimberly Brown.
The sources for our story are Dr. Kimberly Brown, an ER Physician with Baptist Desoto Health Systems and Hackensack Meridian Health.
Here we go.
"There's really only 4 ingredients in the vaccine. There is mRNA in the vaccine. There is fat or lipid. And, there's salt and vinegar," said Dr. Brown.
So, what's mRNA?
"A piece of genetic material that encodes for a spike protein. And what that does is - it goes into your body, goes into your cells, Your body is like, "huh"? It tells your body to make this protein and your body presents it to the rest of the body like, "Look at what I made". The immune system notices this doesn't look normal. The human body doesn't make a spike protein and they start attacking it and build an immune system," said Dr. Brown.
Next is lipids or fats. According to Hackensack Meridian health they "protect the mRNA and provide somewhat of a greasy exterior that helps the mRNA slide inside the cells."
Salt "helps balance the acidity in your body". And sugar, "Basic table sugar, helps the molecules maintain their shape during freezing".
Those are the ingredients in the Pfizer vaccine. Moderna has a few more like acids and acid stabilizers. That's it.
"Once your body realizes this is foreign, it says, "Who brought you here?" Then your immune system will attack that protein and it also will remember like, "Oh well this is not the first time we've seen that. We know that's wrong". And, it can already go and have antibodies and t-cells and things like that to fight against that if your body should encounter the actual covid-19 virus. Then, it knows how to attack it and that's exactly what happens," said Dr. Brown.
So, we can verify.
"It is not the actual virus."
If you would like us to verify something just send us an email to verify@localmemphis.com.