Several different types of potential vaccines for COVID-19 are in development, including:
Inactivated or weakened virus vaccines use a form of the virus that has been inactivated or weakened, so it doesn’t cause disease, but still generates an immune response.
Protein-based vaccines use harmless fragments of proteins or protein shells that mimic the COVID-19 virus to generate an immune response safely.
Viral vector vaccines, which use a virus that has been genetically engineered so that it can’t cause disease, but produces coronavirus proteins to generate an immune response safely.
RNA and DNA vaccines, a cutting-edge approach that uses genetically engineered RNA or DNA to generate a protein that safely prompts an immune response.