Vaccines and COVID-19
A look at vaccines and their role in helping control the COVID-19 pandemic.
Vaccines are a biological preparation that provides active acquired immunity to a particular infectious disease. A killed or weakened version of the germs that cause disease are contained within a Vaccine. (For example, Measles vaccine contains Measles virus, and Hib vaccine contains Hib bacteria). Some vaccines contain only a part of the disease germ. This ensures the body’s immune system recognizes this neutralized germ as a threat and destroys it. Furthermore, the immune system will recognize and destroy any of the microorganisms associated with the agent that it may encounter in the future.
A vaccine stimulates your immune system to produce antibodies, exactly like it would if you were exposed to the disease. After getting vaccinated, you develop immunity to that disease, without having to get the disease first.
Vaccination is the most effective method of preventing infectious diseases. Widespread immunity due to vaccination is largely responsible for the worldwide eradication of Smallpox and the restriction of diseases such as Polio, Measles, and Tetanus from much of the world.
The effectiveness of vaccination has been widely studied and verified; for example, vaccines that have proven effective include the Influenza vaccine, the HPV vaccine, and the Chicken Pox vaccine. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that licensed vaccines are currently available for twenty-five different preventable infections.
This is what makes vaccines such powerful medicine. Unlike most medicines, which treat or cure diseases, vaccines prevent them.
Researchers worldwide are working nonstop to find a vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing the COVID-19 pandemic. This massive effort means that a fast-tracked vaccine could come to the market anywhere from the end of 2020 to the middle of 2021.
Few vaccines have been authorized to date are as follows.
Pfizer/ BioNtech vaccine
The big breakthrough came in creating a vaccine when Pfizer/BioNTech published its first results in November and received temporary authorization from the UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency on the 2nd of December 2020.
Achieved 95% effectiveness.
It is given in two doses, three weeks apart.
About 43,000 people have gotten the vaccine, with no safety concerns.
This vaccine must be stored at a temperature of around -70ºC. It will be transported in a special container, packed in dry ice and installed with GPS trackers.
On the 2nd of December, the UK became the first country in the world to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine for widespread use.
On the 8th of December, 90-year-old Margaret Keenan became the first patient to receive the vaccine at the University Hospital in Coventry, with 800,000 more doses expected to be given in the coming weeks.
The vaccine is a new type called RNA, and uses a tiny fragment of the virus’s genetic code. This starts making a part of the virus inside the body, which the immune system recognizes as foreign and starts to attack.
An RNA vaccine has never been approved for use in humans before, although people have received them in clinical trials for other diseases.
Oxford University/AstraZeneca vaccine
Trials of the Oxford vaccine show that it stops 70% of people from developing COVID symptoms.
The data shows a strong immune response in older people.
There is also intriguing data that suggests perfecting the dose could increase protection up to 90%.
It is given in two doses.
Trials with more than 20,000 volunteers are still continuing.
This may be one of the easiest vaccines to distribute, because it does not need to be stored at very cold temperatures.
It is made from a weakened version of a common cold virus from chimpanzees, that has been modified to not grow in humans.
Moderna vaccine
Moderna uses the same approach as the Pfizer vaccine.
company says they have achieved 94.5% effectiveness.
It is given in two doses, four weeks apart.
30,000 have been involved in the trials, with half getting the vaccine and half dummy injections.
It is easier to store than Pfizer’s because it stays stable at -20ºC for up to six months.
What other vaccines are being developed?
Other trial results are also expected in the coming weeks.
Data on the Russian Sputnik V vaccine, which works like the Oxford one, suggests it is effective at a rate of 92%.
Janssen’s trial is recruiting 6,000 people across the UK, and a total of 30,000 volunteers worldwide, to see if two jabs give stronger and longer-lasting immunity than one.
Wuhan Institute of Biological Products and Sinopharm in China, and Russia’s Gamaleya Research Institute are all in final testing.
Who will get the vaccine first?
This depends on where COVID is spreading when the vaccine becomes available and in which groups each is most effective.
Age, by far, is COVID’s biggest risk factor.
Older care home residents and staff followed by health workers like hospital staff, and the over-80s. will be prioritized.
What still needs to be done?
- Trials must show vaccines are safe.
• Huge-scale development must happen for the billions of potential doses.
• Regulators must approve the vaccine before it can be administered.
• Researchers still need to find out how long any protection may last.
It is thought that 60–70% of the global population must be immune to stop the virus spreading easily (herd immunity) — billions of people, even if the vaccine works perfectly.
Sputnik V — formerly known as Gam-COVID-Vac, developed by the Gamaleya Research Institute in Moscow — was approved by the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation on the 11th of August. Experts raise considerable concern about the vaccine’s safety and efficacy given it has not yet entered Phase 3 clinical trials.
A second vaccine in Russia, EpiVacCorona, has also been granted regulatory approval, also without entering Phase 3 clinical trials.
Conclusion
With the increasing development of promising vaccines thanks to the work of researchers and scientists all around the world, we could very well be looking at a definitive cure for the COVID-19 pandemic somewhere within the year 2021.
References
Bloomberg.com. 2020. Bloomberg — Are You A Robot?
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2020. COVID-19 And Your Health Nytimes.com. 2020. Coronavirus Vaccine Tracker
U.S. Food and Drug Administration. 2020. COVID-19 Vaccines
Pfizer.com. 2020. Coronavirus COVID-19: Vaccine, Drug And Treatment Updates | Pfizer
Who.int. 2020. COVID-19 Vaccines
