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Reuters
The Corona virus continues to spread around the world, and science has yet to come up with a vaccine that protects the body from the disease caused by Covid-19.
Medical researchers are working hard to change this.
How important is the Corona vaccine?
The virus spreads easily, and the majority of the world’s population remains vulnerable to infection. A vaccine can provide some protection, by training the human immune system, to fight the virus if they get the infection, so they don’t get sick.
This would allow countries around the world to ease restrictions on social divergence and stop closings.
What progress has been made so far?
The research is continuing very rapidly, and more than 80 groups worldwide are working to find a vaccine, some of which have entered clinical trials.
Last month, scientists from the US city of Seattle announced that they would conduct the first trial of a human vaccine, the Crown. Unusually, they skipped the stages of the animal vaccine test to ensure safety and efficacy before testing it in humans.
The two giant pharmaceutical manufacturers, Sanofi and GSKY, are collaborating to develop a vaccine.
Australian scientists have also begun testing hypothetical mongoose animal vaccines. It is the first complete preclinical trial, involving animals, and researchers hope to test the vaccine on humans in late April.
Researchers at the University of Oxford aim to produce 1 million doses of a crown vaccine in September, and human trials have begun.
However, no one yet knows how effective these vaccines are.
When will we get the Corona vaccine?
Generally, the development of any vaccine requires years, sometimes decades. The researchers hope they can accomplish the same amount of work required, in just a few months.
Most experts believe the vaccine may be available in mid-2021, almost 12 or 18 months after the first outbreak of the emerging virus, officially known as Sars-CoV-2.
This will be a heroic scientific achievement, but there is no guarantee that it will achieve the required results.
To date, humans have infected four different types of coronavirus (Corona). These viruses cause the symptoms of the common cold and we do not have a vaccine for any of them.
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What do we still have to do?
It is true that several research groups designed possible vaccines, but we still have a lot of work to do.
Experiments are supposed to show that the vaccine is safe. It would not be beneficial if it caused more problems than the epidemic itself.
Clinical trials must demonstrate that a vaccine can stimulate the immune system response, in order to protect the body from disease.
A method must also be found to produce the vaccine on a large scale, to provide billions of needed doses.
Drug agencies and departments must approve the vaccine before allowing it to be used.
In the end, there will be a major logistical challenge to vaccinate the majority of Earth’s population.
Full blocking can slow down this entire process. If the number of people who get the infection decreases, it will take longer to see if the vaccine really works.
The idea of vaccinating people, then deliberately infecting them (what’s known as the challenge study), may give us a quicker response, but it’s too dangerous to try at a time when there’s no known cure for the disease until now. .
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Science Photo Library
How many people should be vaccinated?
It is difficult to know the answer without making sure of the effectiveness of the supposed vaccine.
It is believed that between 60 and 70 percent of people should acquire the necessary immunity against the virus, to stop its spread easily (or what is known as collective immunity). This equates to billions of people worldwide, if the vaccine is shown to be effective.
How to make a vaccine?
Vaccines aim to safely identify the immune system, viruses, bacteria, or even small portions of them. Our immune defenses recognize them as foreign foreign bodies and learn to fight them.
If the body is exposed to the real virus, it will know what to do.
The main method adopted for vaccination for decades, based on the use of the original virus.
The triple vaccine (measles, mumps, and rubella) is made from weak viruses that cannot cause infection.
The seasonal flu vaccine uses the major strains of flu that circulate and completely stops them.
Working on a new corona vaccine that uses a new and untested method called “plug and play” vaccines. Because we know the genetic map of the emerging virus, Sars-CoV-2, we have the ability to make it.
Researchers from the University of Oxford have placed small parts of their genetic map on a harmless virus that infects chimpanzees. They hope that the vaccine they developed is a safe virus, similar to SK enough to create the desired immune response.
Other research groups turn to the production of portions of the raw genetic code, and once they are injected into the body, they are supposed to make viral proteins that our immune system can learn to fight.
Can the virus protect humans of all ages?
The vaccine will certainly be less successful with the elderly, because the immune system does not respond adequately during the aging of vaccines. We see this in seasonal flu vaccines, for example.
This problem can be overcome by giving them small doses of the vaccine, along with an auxiliary chemical that stimulates the immune system.
Who can get the vaccine?
If scientists succeed in developing the vaccine, then its production will be limited, at least in the early stages, which means that priorities need to be determined.
Health workers in contact with Covid-19 patients should be at the top of the list. Because the disease primarily kills the elderly, priority should be given if the vaccine is shown to be effective in this age group.
However, it may be better to vaccinate or care for people who live with the elderly.
