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Mystery #3Tier 3microbes / immunity

How does a vaccine protect you without making you ill?

A vaccine protects you from an illness, yet it doesn't give you that illness to do it. That seems almost like a trick: how can your body learn to beat a germ it has never actually fought?

A friendly health worker smiling as she prepares a vaccine at a brightly decorated clinic, with a child looking on.
Photo: U.S. Army photo by Jessica Dambruch, Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

Your guess

What's your hunch about how a vaccine can get your body ready for a germ without making you ill?

There's no single magic word to type, have a go in your own words, then reveal the answer to see how close you got.

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