Work together on vaccines
Investigators and scientists are racing the clock to develop a vaccine to arrest SARS-COV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 as cases and death toll continue to mount and the world economy lies in tatters. The scientific community was never this enthusiastic about developing any other vaccine as it is today for COVID-19. In less than six months, nearly 180 vaccine candidates have been registered and nearly three dozen of these have entered the human trial stage.
Six vaccines have entered the phase III of clinical trials to assess their efficacy and two of these — one from University of Oxford in the UK and the other under development by Moderna in the United States — are being considered as front runners. The results from early-stage clinical trials of these vaccines have shown promising outcomes on safety and immunogenicity parameters. They have also generated both antibodies and T-cell responses.
However, we have to be very cautious as there are many challenges ahead. We know that there is no vaccine yet for Malaria and HIV after years of research costing billions of dollars.
But the updates from Oxford are encouraging. The success of the vaccine lies in triggering the formation of antibodies and T cells to fight the virus.
It has not yet shown if it can prevent the infection. What we know that such vaccines have generated immune responses.
Surprisingly, there is no global collaboration to develop the vaccine despite the world facing such a catastrophic pandemic. Instead what we hear are reports of hacking research data.
The next challenge is how to produce enough vaccines and distribute it across the world.
Many people are hopeful of a successful vaccine by year end. But my prediction is early 2021, which I would love to be proven wrong.
In the absence of a vaccine and herd immunity, we have no choice but to live with the virus.
The author is a physician, medical innovator & educator.