Vaccines are only as effective as their delivery system. Many vaccines employ the use of adjuvants or additives that help to deliver the antigen to the host. What the adjuvants are supposed to do is activate an immune response so that the host can fully recognize the antigen and properly recognize to create a lasting immunity. You can think of adjuvants as the coating of a multilayer pill. Many pills have a layer that dissolves and releases compounds that will create and ideal setting in which your body can take in the actual active drug that the pill contains. The drug itself is pretty much never directly used just because without other compounds interacting with it it will never reach the destination where it is supposed to absorbed by the body or it will never actually be absorbed at all. Adjuvants are used in vaccines today primarily because of the way that vaccines are produced. Vaccines used to be made using killed or weakened whole cells, now they are made with parts of the antigen that produce strong immune responses. These vaccines are usually much safer and are generally produced more efficiently. However because it is only parts of the antigen they must be presented to the immune system in a different way. Most modern vaccines contain 25% or less of the active ingredient, parts of the antigen, and the rest is adjuvants to help present the antigen to the immune system. If you are curious about what adjuvants are in the vaccines you are receiving you can visit the the CDC website for a full list of ingredients as this information must legally be disclosed.
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