Why are mRNA vaccines different from traditional vaccines?

Traditional vaccines are like instruction manuals that teach your body how to fight a virus. mRNA vaccines are more like text messages that tell your body exactly what to make so it can fight the virus.

Imagine you're playing with building blocks, and someone shows you how to build a robot, that's like a traditional vaccine. It gives your body a copy of part of the virus, so your body learns how to recognize and fight it.

Now imagine instead of being shown how to build the robot, you get a text message saying, "Build this robot!" That's like an mRNA vaccine, it sends your body a message telling it what to make. Then your body makes the protein part of the virus, which helps it learn how to fight it.

Both kinds help your body get ready for real viruses, but mRNA vaccines are faster and easier to make because they don’t need to copy the whole virus, just send a quick message!