Vaccines are made up of substances that generate an immune response to particular organisms.

They also contain other ingredients to keep the vaccine safe and effective.

Each vaccine component serves a specific purpose, and all ingredients are tested for safety.

Now let’s focus in to see what a vaccine actually contains:

Antigen

All vaccines contain an active component (called the antigen) which generates the immune response from our body.

This antigen may be a small part of the disease-causing organism, like a protein or sugar, or it may be the whole organism in a weakened or inactive state.

Alternatively, newer vaccines like the COVID-19 vaccines, contain the ‘design plan’ for making a small part of the disease-causing organism. This ‘design plan’ is then delivered to our cells via a sphere of fat or a weakened virus. Our own cells then make this small part (the antigen) themselves, and this then generates an immune response. This then enables your body to attack the actual organism should it try to infect you.

It is important to note here, that the COVID-19 vaccines cannot cause you to have COVID-19 or other infections as they do not contain a LIVE virus. They also do not affect or interact with your DNA.

Preservatives

Preservatives prevent the vaccine from becoming contaminated once the vaccine vial has been opened, if it will be used for vaccinating more than one person. Some vaccines don’t have preservatives because they are stored in one-dose vials and are discarded after the single dose is administered.

The most commonly used preservative is 2-phenoxyethanol. It has been used for many years in a number of vaccines, and is used in a range of baby care products as it has little toxicity in humans.

Stabilisers

Stabilisers prevent chemical reactions from occurring within the vaccine and prevent the vaccine components from sticking to the vaccine vial. 

Stabilisers can be:

• Sugars such as lactose or sucrose
• Amino acids like glycine
• Gelatine  
• Proteins (such as Recombinant Human Albumin (rHu Albumin) – this is a substance that has the same structure as albumin found in humans, however, it is made in a lab and does not contain any animal or human-derived substances.

Surfactants

Surfactants keep all the ingredients in the vaccine blended together. They prevent settling and clumping of elements that are in the liquid form of the vaccine. They are also often used in foods like ice cream.

Residuals

Residuals are tiny amounts of various substances used during manufacturing or production of vaccines that are not active ingredients in the completed vaccine. Substances will vary depending on the manufacturing process used and may include egg proteins, yeast or antibiotics. Residual traces of these substances which may be present in a vaccine are in such small quantities that they need to be measured as parts per million or parts per billion.

Diluent

A diluent is a liquid used to dilute a vaccine to the correct concentration immediately prior to use. The most commonly used diluent is sterile water.

Adjuvant

Some vaccines also contain adjuvants. An adjuvant improves the immune response to the vaccine, by stimulating local immune cells.

The adjuvant may be tiny amounts of aluminium salts. Aluminium has been shown not to cause any long-term health problems, and humans ingest aluminium regularly through eating and drinking.

It is important to note that the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine , the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine and the Moderna vaccine against COVID-19, do not contain any gelatine or other animal products. All three vaccines are suitable for vegetarians.

We hope you found the information useful! More information can be found here.

What’s Inside a Vaccine? Understanding Its Ingredients

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