Do you know how vaccines work?

This short animation, co-created by NHS England and the British Society for Immunology, explains in plain language how vaccines protect against serious diseases. It is designed to be shared with families, carers, staff and educators to build vaccine knowledge and confidence.

What the video explains

• How a vaccine trains the immune system to recognize a germ without causing the disease
• How immune memory lets the body respond faster if it meets the real infection later
• How vaccination reduces the spread of disease and protects people who cannot be vaccinated
• Why that matters for informed decisions about consent and vaccination

The science

Vaccines contain a harmless piece or version of a germ, or instructions to make one, as with mRNA vaccines. The immune system responds by making antibodies and memory cells, so a later infection is stopped quickly or made much milder. When enough people are immune, the disease struggles to spread. This "community immunity" protects newborns, people with weakened immune systems and others who can't be vaccinated. When vaccination rates fall, diseases like measles return.

Related reading: How mRNA Vaccines Work, History of Vaccines and Re-Emergence of Measles.