KANSAS CITY, Mo — While the way the COVID-19 vaccine will be administered look the same, what is inside the vials and syringes is groundbreaking.
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine doesn't use the virus itself. Instead, it was developed using Messenger RNA (mRNA).
"It's a new way to induce the immune system to ramp up in order to fight a specific protein that is on the coronavirus," Dr. Darrin D'Agostino, executive dean at Kansas City University, said.
It's first time the Food and Drug Administration approved an mRNA vaccine. Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine, which the FDA is expected to review later this week, also uses mRNA.
"It really goes to show how science, well done, can really, ultimately, get us out of a very, very difficult situation we're in with this pandemic," Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told NBC's Hallie Jackson.
Though it took months and not years to develop, D'Agostino said no one cut corners. Rather, scientists worked smarter on a technology they've used before.
"Multiple things that had to happen previously in a very linear way, that added time, were occurring in parallel so that the data could be analyzed in real time and actually move through the process much quicker," D'Agostino told 41 Action News.
The vaccine is only half of the solution, getting vaccinated is the other.
"It would be a great tragedy if disparities actually worsened because the people who could most benefit from this vaccine won't take it," Dr. Jerome Adams, U.S. Surgeon General, said.
While the vaccine isn't widely available yet, Kansas City University is coordinating with local health departments to have medical students help with inoculations in the metro.
Many public health experts expect a flashback to the long lines of the 1950s and 1960s after the polio vaccine was released.
"These vaccines are going to help us protect everybody, not just the individual taking it but those around us," D'Agostino said.
He also said early evidence shows the vaccine can provide eight or nine months of immunity.
