What is RNA and how is it used in vaccines? Elizabeth Tracey reports

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RNA stands for ribonucleic acid, and since the development of Covid vaccines a class of it known as ‘messenger RNA’ or mRNA for short has been much in the news. Anna Durbin, a vaccine expert at Johns Hopkins, explains a bit about RNA and how it is used in vaccines.

Durbin: RNA is all over your body, that's your body's machinery. We use RNA to make all of the proteins in our body, all of the enzymes, everything that keeps our body running is based on RNA. RNA is very short lived, it's very fragile and the RNA in these vaccines does not stick around long at all in your body, a few hours maybe 12 at maximum 24 hours and then it's gone. If that RNA while it's there it's producing that protein that's stimulating your immune response.     :33

Durbin notes that the RNA prompts production of a protein that our bodies will produce an immune response to, not to the RNA itself, and since it’s so short lived that’s one reason additional vaccinations may be necessary. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.