How do vaccines work with keiki?

The COVID-19 vaccine works similarly to other vaccines your keiki may have had: by teaching your keiki’s body what the virus looks like and giving their immune system a chance to learn how to fight it without actually being infected.

The COVID vaccine in particular does this by providing a tiny piece of genetic information (not the virus itself) that instructs cells to make “spike proteins” (like the ones you see on illustrations of COVID). This allows the immune system to produce antibodies and develop memory cells for fighting the real virus if they become infected.

SOURCE: https://healthychildren.org/English/health-issues/conditions/COVID-19/Pages/The-Science-Behind-the-COVID-19-Vaccine-Parent-FAQs.aspx (American Academy of Pediatrics)

Updated 12/16/2021