This is Brian Lair's Daily Politics podcast from WNYC Studios. It's Tuesday, May 11th. Yesterday, the FDA

approved the use of the Pfizer vaccine for 12 to 15-year-olds, and the CDC is expected to issue

guidelines for its use. It's already available to anyone 16 and over today. The Moderna and J&J vaccines

are available to those age 18 and over, and once the CDC acts, minors will need a parent or

guardian's permission to get vaccinated. For adults, glass half

full. Over half of the currently eligible New Yorkers have received at least one shot. Glass

half empty, almost half of eligible New Yorkers have yet to receive their first vaccine dose.

All New York City and state-run sites are available for walk-in appointments.

Both New York and New Jersey have come up with incentives to get some of the remaining folks vaccinated,

from baseball tickets to free beer. So for anyone about to decide for their younger teenagers or

for adults who haven't made it to a vaccination site,

here's a chance to ask a virologist. Do you have questions about the science behind the three

vaccines and how they work? We're joined now by Brian Barker, an immunologist and virologist,

who is an associate professor of biology at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey, and co-host of the podcast, this week in Virology.

Welcome to WNYC, Professor Barker.

Thanks. It's great to be here. I'm excited to talk with you all about vaccines.

Professor Barker, since it's the Pfizer vaccine that looks like it will be available soon for younger teens. Let's start

there. Can you give us a little lesson in how it works? And what does it mean that it's an

MRNA vaccine? Sure. With vaccine science, we've done a lot of great work to understand

which parts of the virus are key targets for your immune

response. And we have learned that a particular piece of the SARS-CoV-2 virus called the spike

protein is the main portion that your immune system responds to. So instead of giving you a vaccine that includes

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