Can Covid-19 Vaccine cause Coronavirus Infection?

The other day one of my friends asked me, “Can Covid-19 vaccine cause coronavirus infection?” as he heard from somewhere that some people tested positive within a week after vaccination. So, to clarify the fact I would like to discuss it in two parts, firstly what a vaccine is, how it works, and secondly is Covid-19 vaccine-induced infection possible?

What is a vaccine?

Humans are born with an immune system, the function of which is to eliminate invading microorganisms. The immune system has two types. There is the innate immune system, which attacks any microorganism that it encounters within the body, without any specificity. Then there is the acquired or adaptive immune system, which identifies the organism first, produces specific antibodies that kill the microorganism. The advantage of the acquired immune system is that they have something called immunological memory, which helps it to act faster if the germ enters the body again in the future, resulting in faster resolution of infection. Vaccine exploits this immunological memory feature of the acquired immune system. Vaccines are biological preparations, which contain agents resembling a disease-causing microorganism and are often made from weakened or killed microorganisms, or their surface proteins. Once introduced into the body, the acquired immune system recognizes it as a threat and destroys it, and also develops an immunological memory, a repertoire of immune cells capable of producing antibodies against the organism, in case it encounters the real organism in question in the future and eliminate it.

Can Covid-19 vaccine cause coronavirus infection?

As I have already mentioned above, vaccines are made from killed, weakened, or proteins of microorganisms that are unable to set up a full-blown infection, so in the case of coronavirus also it’s virtually impossible to have Covid-19 vaccine-induced infection. So, what about the persons who tested positive after vaccination? Well, it could be possible that the vaccinated individual contracted the virus from the environment in a similar way a non-vaccinated individual does. This is known as breakthrough Covid infection. The covid-19 vaccine protects in the sense that it helps your immune system to eliminate the virus fast and efficiently, that means you can still get infected after vaccination if you let your guards down, but the severity compared to a non-vaccinated individual will be minimal, thanks to the beefed-up immune system made by the vaccine.

Now that you know the fact that the covid-19 vaccine does not cause coronavirus infection, I hope you can take your jab with confidence if you haven’t taken it already.