{"id":118264,"date":"2021-03-05T10:50:59","date_gmt":"2021-03-05T15:50:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=118264"},"modified":"2022-07-29T14:45:18","modified_gmt":"2022-07-29T18:45:18","slug":"what-makes-the-covid-19-vaccine-safe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/what-makes-the-covid-19-vaccine-safe\/","title":{"rendered":"What Makes the COVID-19 Vaccine Safe?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The COVID-19 vaccine is a new type of vaccine called an mRNA vaccine and has stirred a lot of conversation about its effectiveness and safety.<\/p>\n

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, \u201cto trigger an immune response, many vaccines put a weakened or inactivated germ into our bodies. Not mRNA vaccines. Instead, they teach 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. That immune response, which produces antibodies, is what protects us from getting infected if the real virus enters our bodies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are being administered in the U.S. right now, and Johnson & Johnson\u00a0is expected to join them. Darin Edwards \u201997 \u201910MS \u201911PhD<\/strong> applied his degrees in biology<\/a>, molecular biology<\/a> and biomedical sciences<\/a> to lead the research and development of Moderna\u2019s mRNA-1273 vaccine.<\/p>\n

Although the state of Florida\u2019s eligibility requirements<\/a> for the COVID-19 vaccine are limited to certain age and profession demographics, that may be changing soon after President Joe Biden announced March 2 that he expects that the United States will have enough COVID-19 vaccines for every adult by the end of May.<\/p>\n

With widespread accessibility to the vaccine on the horizon, two medical professors with expertise in infectious diseases and pathology break down the science behind the vaccine and answer common questions about its safety, effectiveness and who should be getting it.<\/p>\n

Professor of Clinical Sciences Kenneth Alexander is certified by the American Board of Pediatrics\/Infectious Diseases and earned his medical degree in 1989 from the 海角直播 of Washington. In addition to his role at UCF, he is chief of pediatric infectious diseases at Nemours Children\u2019s Hospital.<\/p>\n

Professor of Pathology Jane Gibson is chair of the department of clinical sciences. She is board certified by the American Board of Medical Genetics and Genomics and earned her Ph.D. pathology\/laboratory medicine from the 海角直播 of Florida College of Medicine.<\/p>\n

If you enjoy this video, you can find more \u201cWhat Makes\u2026\u201d content\u00a0\u2014 including topics on space, love bugs, hurricanes and more \u2014 on UCF\u2019s YouTube channel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two UCF professors explain the process of how the vaccine came to be and why they trust the science behind it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":118587,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"lazy_load_responsive_images_disabled":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[5,6,12,24],"tags":[979,18250,1646,40767,40768],"tu_author":[],"class_list":["post-118264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colleges","category-community","category-health","category-science-technology","tag-college-of-medicine","tag-coronavirus","tag-faculty","tag-jane-gibson","tag-ken-alexander"],"yoast_head":"\nUCF Medical Experts: What Makes the COVID-19 Vaccine Safe?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Two UCF professors explain the process of how the coronavirus vaccine came to be 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