For the love of God, get that Corona vaccine already.
The Covid-19 vaccine gamble: where the bets have been placed and why.
As I write this, the number of covid cases in our county is 3,258 between November 14–27,2020.
Why do we need a vaccine?
While rigorous testing, contact tracing, and quarantine procedures will help to control the spread of Covid-19, the only way to significantly reduce the threat is for enough of the population (around 60%) to become immune to the virus so that they can’t pass it on. That’s where a vaccine is put to work. A vaccine would teach our bodies to fight the infection by stopping us from catching coronavirus or at least making Covid less deadly. Putting it in layman’s terms vaccines are the ‘ training program’ for the immune cells (WBCs) in our body to recognize and rub out the foreign pathogens that cause disease.
This kind of widespread community immunity (also known as herd immunity) can also be achieved by many people getting infected and eventually developing immunity for it. But, one does not have to be a rocket scientist (or any kind of scientist, for that matter) to understand that this procedure is extremely risky and will cost thousands of lives.
Having a vaccine, alongside better treatments, is “the” exit strategy.
Where do we stand now?
Research into Covid-19 vaccines has progressed pretty impressively compared to previous immunizations. This has been possible due to the commendable efforts put forward by the global research teams backed by the governments and the public health organizations.
Vaccines typically require years of research and testing before reaching the clinic, but scientists are racing so that a vaccine could optimistically be rolled to some groups by next year.
Front-runners so far
While not a treatment or a cure, vaccines can help eradicate a disease by starving the virus of people to infect and transmit the disease.
OXFORD UNIVERSITY/ AstraZeneca VACCINE:
Trials so far have shown 70% of people stop developing Covid symptoms after administering this particular variety of vaccines. There are further intriguing data that perfecting the dose could increase protection by up to 90%. Given in two doses, this could be the easiest vaccine to distribute since they need not be stored in special sub-zero conditions.
Pfizer/BioNtech VACCINE:
Like the previous one, this one goes in two doses too but, three weeks apart. The trials- in the US, Germany, Brazil, Argentina, South Africa, Turkey — show a promising 90% success rate after the second dose. But this data is based on only the first 94 volunteers for the vaccine trial and cannot be taken as the final analysis.
The special feature of this vaccine is that it needs to be stored at -70 C (-94 F). It is a mammoth logistical operation of transporting it from the point of manufacture to the arm of the patient. It can not be removed more than four times from the above-mentioned temperature conditions and that temperature is much lower than what the average home freezer can reach. So, with no widespread infrastructure already in place, the thermoregulation can be challenging.
As revealed by the Wall Street Journal, Pfizer has already set its eye on developing a special suitcase-sized transport box to meet the vaccine’s ultra-low temperature formulation. These reusable boxes are packed with dry ice and installed with GPS trackers, which can keep up to 5000 doses of vaccine at the suitable temperature if left unopened. But most certainly, these boxes aren’t going to be cheap. Also, the global shortage of carbon dioxide from earlier this year could impact the feasibility of these boxes because dry ice is a related product of CO₂.
MODERNA VACCINE:
US company Moderna gave the world another reason to grin ear-to-ear with a new vaccine that is nearly 95% effective. It includes two injections four weeks apart. The results come hot on the heels of similar results from Pfizer and add to the hopes worldwide of an effective vaccine soon.
Moderna’s vaccine appears easier to handle and transport since it doesn’t require ultra-cold storage and remain stable at -20 C for up to six months and can be stored in a standard fridge for up to a month. No significant safety concerns have been raised so far with this vaccine, but nothing, including paracetamol, is 100% safe.
Moderna plans to apply for approval to use the vaccine in the next few weeks. Moderna CEO, Stéphane Bancel is hopeful that given its high efficacy against both mild and severe disease, will have the most impact if given to the ‘high risk’ category of patients. “Give it to health care workers, give it to the elderly, give it to people with diabetes, overweight, heart disease,” he says. “A 25-year-old healthy man? Give him another vaccine.”
OTHERS THAT DESERVE A MENTION
Many potential vaccines for Covid-19 are being studied. If a vaccine is proven safe and effective, it must be approved by national regulators, manufactured to exacting standards, and distributed. There are currently more than 100 Covid-19 vaccine candidates under development, with a number of these in the human trial phase. Few of them are,
- Russian Sputnik V vaccine. It is the trade name of Gam-COVID-Vac developed by the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology. It suggests 92% efficiency.
- Wuhan Institute of Biological Products and Sinofarm are in final testing too.
Where is this road leading us?
Several ongoing corona-vaccine trials could announce game-changing results soon. But as anticipation grows, concerns are growing about whether the vaccines will clear safety trials, what will they achieve if they do and the risk that the approval process will be influenced by politics, or at least seem to. Researchers still need to find out how long any protection may last. Huge scale development must happen for billions of potential doses because even if the vaccine works perfectly, billions of people need it to stop the spread of the virus.
