clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

How the newest vaccines fight Covid-19

The Covid-19 pandemic has ushered in a new generation of vaccines.

In 2020, Covid-19 vaccines shattered previous speed records, going from development to FDA approval in less than one year. Before that, the fastest vaccine to receive FDA approval in the US was the mumps vaccine, which took four years. So how did they do it? Vaccines including those from Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, and AstraZeneca used new methods that give genetic instructions directly to human cells.

It’s a development that puts us in a new era of vaccine technology and could introduce faster, more effective disease treatments in the future. Check out the video above to learn more, read this article by Umair Irfan, and follow more vaccine developments in Vox’s coronavirus coverage.

You can find this video and all of Vox’s videos on YouTube. Subscribe for more.

Sign up for the newsletter Sign up for Vox Recommends

Get curated picks of the best Vox journalism to read, watch, and listen to every week, from our editors.