Medical / Biological question in regards to mRNA vaccines..
If I understand correctly, traditional flu vaccines work by injecting a dead or weakened piece of a flu virus into your body. Your body detects the dead or weakened virus, and then develops antibodies to attack that particular virus strain. Then later in the season if you contract that same flu, your body already knows how to respond. Is this basically right?
The mRNA vaccine is different because it does not inject a dead or weakened piece of the virus into your body. Instead it injects ‘instructions’ into your body that tell/teach your body to create its own viral spike protein that your body then attacks. The idea being that after your body learns to attack the viral protein that it created, it will recognize the Covid spike protein and attack it before it infects you. Is this right?
My question is; are there any natural functions of the immune system where your body creates something that it then needs to protect you from? Are there other instances when your body creates its own enemy? If I get the mRNA vaccine will this be the first time my body has initiated an immune response to something that my own cells produced?
I know that cancer is when cells divide and spread uncontrollably and create a tumor, but do our cells ever produce a virus?