Hola MaHigh-School - April 2020

Vaccine or cure? or both
Let us first know what we are dealing with: Virus or bacteria.
A bacteria is a living thing. It typically consists of onecelled
organisms, having a cell membrane holding the
cytoplasm together. This is also where we find the nucleus,
mitochondria and chloroplasts. Bacteria are living things!
Of course bacteria can ‘grow’ by normal cell division. There
is more to it, but ... Bacteria are both helpful (bacteria in
the gut break down food) and can be harmful (TB).
A virus is something else. It is really at the boundaries of
biology and chemistry. First of all, virus is small, like 100
times smaller than a typical bacteria. Virus is really just a
capsule of proteins with a string of DNA or RNA inside. A
virus can only live and replicate inside a cell.
How do we protect ourselves?
Vaccine is something we use before we get sick. Vaccine is
giving us an acquired immunity against the specific illness.
A vaccine typically contains a part of the disease-causing
structure. It could be dead virus/bacteria, the surface proteins,
etc.