There is a whole load of misinformation out there on what a virus is - and I don't know enough about them.

So I asked a virologist - a thread:

"Live virus vaccines are often attenuated in their pathogenicity through many cell culture cycles, and are safe to use... /1

...(e.g. the smallpox vaccines from the 1970s). Other viral vaccines can be killed virus, like the ‘flu virus, which is grown in eggs or cell culture and then inactivated with chemicals such as B-propriolactone, before administration. /2

Other types of vaccines include the vector-based vaccines like the Oxford/AZ SARS CoV2 vaccine which is derived from an adenovirus similar to those causing the common cold, but with some genes removed, and supplemented with a SARS CoV2 gene, to produce.../3

...replication-deficient vectors, similar to viruses. These vectors will produce the SARS CoV protein, enabling the vaccine to mount an immune response to SARS CoV2. The mRNA vaccines are a new, exciting type of vaccine which does not contain live virus, or killed virus,.../4

...but contains messenger RNA which is then translated into viral proteins so the body can mount a response to them, thereby protecting the recipient"

ENDS

A tad messy a thread, but I did not want to change a word.