What Would the Perfect Covid-19 Vaccine Look Like? (Pedcast by Doc Smo and Sonya Corina Williams)

Most experts think that the only way out of the Covid-19 Pandemic is a vaccine of which there are currently 165 in development. Ready or not, someday soon, you will have to make a decision about whether to get one of these vaccines. Will you have the knowledge and understanding to make that decision when that time comes?  I certainly hope so and maybe I can help. Stay tuned while and Sonya and I get you up to speed with SARS-CoV-2 vaccine knowledge circa August 2020. Image by Pixabay   Musical Intro Science Drive-How Do Viruses Infect Cells? Before you can understand how a vaccine might work, we need to review briefly how viruses infect their hosts, the child or adult that they wish to use to reproduce. Remember, viruses are parasites, using the people they infect to make copies of themselves before moving onto another victim. The SARS-CoV-2 virus is thought to enter human lining cells of the nose and lungs by attaching its spike protein to receptors on the cell surface -the so called ACE 2 receptors. Once the virus has gained entry into the cytoplasm of the cell, the body of the cell, its RNA  genetic material is released and takes over the cell machinery and starts making new copies of itself. Once finished with that cell, onto  being released from that cell and infecting other cells in its host etc. etc. As you can see, the virus' own RNA serves as the blueprint to hijack the cell into making copies of itself. The virus is going "viral" as we like to say. In order to stop this process from, researchers need to figure out how to stop the virus by doing two things; making "neutralizing antibodies" that block the virus's ability to enter the cell and by activating killer T cells that can destroy already infected cells before they can make viral copies and keep the infection going. What Would The Perfect Vaccine Look Like? Let's start this discussion with imagining what the perfect Covid-19 vaccine would look like? If such a thing could be crafted, what properties would it have? First and fore