The best way to control this pandemic with a heaving a sigh of relief is to produce a vaccine. So let us understand how exactly have vaccines changed our world.
Let’s take a page out of history, where the world was met by a deadly disease, the smallpox. A lot of those who fell prey to the virus would unfortunately pass away. The disease loomed over the people like a vast shadow of fear, until Edward Jenner and Louis Pasteur explored the world of microbiology. It was Edward Jenner’s observation, by using a strain similar to smallpox, the cowpox/ horsepox (history remains unclear on this front) could help a human withstand the perils of the smallpox. When infected with cowpox/horsepox, the infected person could better withstand the smallpox infection and this method, cross infection was named vaccinia.
Now, the vaccine signifies the principle, which is to gear up the immunity for the infection in contention in prior, hence when the infection occurs, our body is able to recognize and eradicate the pathogen before it strongly affects us. In principle, this is done by exposing our immune system to a crucial protein or attenuated virus, which serves as an “antigen”.
Despite of how simply I have stated the principle of vaccines, the process is in fact extremely complex and to be performed in controlled and precautious environments. A specific type of setup- at a safety level of “BSL-4” (Bio Safety Level) is required for handling a virus like coronavirus, and not many labs are equipped to do so. There’s many precautions to be taken before approving a vaccine to use for the masses and the passing criteria for it is extremely stringent, at a significance level of 0.01 should portray positive results with no negative connotations and harms from it. There were difficulties with finding a suitable medium to cultivate the virus. It is also difficult to harvest the necessary protein required to serve as “antigen” in its purest, structurally viable form. Hence the entire process generally takes years, but due to the dire need and advancement in technology, we may have at our hand, a few good contenders.
A few vaccines have reached the Phase 2 of Clinical trials. They have already begun testing of these vaccines on humans, and if they show favourable results, the vaccines will be available to a larger market. Our leading contender in Phase 2b/3 is the vaccine presented by University of Oxford- AstraZeneca collaboration, which shows promising results. According to their prediction, if all were to go well, the vaccine will be available to larger masses by the October of 2020. The production of billions of doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccination are already underway. We also have Moderna/ NIAID and CanSino Biological Inc./Beijing Institute of Biotechnology with their vaccines in phase 2. Many other universities and companies are also working on their own projects to develop a vaccine for the coronavirus.
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The expedited development of these vaccines will full the world back from its halt, hopefully the entire world’s approach to our practices will be different from here on and we take accountability for our actions, no matter how small. This pandemic should guide us to a path of new era, of new living.
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