Know your COVID-19 vaccines before the jab-by Harold Gunatillake Transcript: “In the race to build the world’s first round. of coronavirus vaccines, the spike protein— the thorny knobs that adorn each of the pathogen’s particles—was our most valuable. player. Spike is a key ingredient in virtually. every one of our current pandemic-fighting shots: it has been repeatedly billed as essential for tickling out any immune response. worth its salt. “People put all their eggs in the spike basket,” Juliet Morrison, a virologist at UC Riverside told me. And it undoubtedly paid off. Vaccine makers are looking beyond the spike protein”. As you are aware, Covid-19 is a respiratory disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 virus. Rhinovirus, adenovirus, and human coronavirus infections usually affect your upper respiratory tract, while both SARS and COVID-19 infections affect the lower respiratory tract. So, these latter viruses can cause more symptoms and worse outcomes. ...