Table 3. Advantages and limitations of mRNA-based vaccines and traditional vaccines.

VACCINE TYPE	ADVANTAGES	DISADVANTAGES/LIMITATIONS
Existing mRNA-based vaccines	+ Efficacy: both vaccines have been shown to offer good protection from COVID-19 disease; + stronger type of immunity is provided; + safety: short in vivo half-life of the mRNA strand decreases the probability of possible side effects; + adverse effects are usually only mild; + design and production is faster and potentially cheaper since it uses less resources, although it is more expensive to distribute (special storage required); + large-scale production is possible; + mRNA strand can be adapted to fight various diseases, not only infections.	- potential side effects, especially long-term ones still have to be investigated; - efficacy against new variants is yet unknown; - still unclear, whether vaccinated individuals can infect others; - storage requires very low temperatures; - relatively short shelf life; - two vaccine shots needed.
Traditional vaccines	+ potent vaccine; + proven technology; + may not require adjuvants; + single injection often generates efficient immunity.	- manufacturing: relatively expensive, time-consuming, requires a lot of materials; - higher risk of infection during manufacturing; - difficult to scale up production.