Updated: September 17, 2020 7:32:42 am
A mural in Noida. (Express photo: Gajendra Yadav)
Coronavirus Vaccine Tracker: Describing it as the “most powerful public health tool” against the new coronavirus, Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States, has said that masks offer much better protection. against infection than vaccines. would do.
The CDC is the American equivalent of the Indian Council for Medical Research. Redfield was responding to questions from US lawmakers at a Senate subcommittee hearing.
“We have clear scientific evidence that they work and are our best defense. I could even go so far as to say that this mask is more likely to protect me against Covid-19 than when I take a vaccine, ”Redfield said.
While a coronavirus vaccine is likely to be available early next year, if not by the end of this year, no one knows so far how effective these vaccines can be. Prominent scientists and vaccine developers have suggested that the first vaccines might not be the most effective, and that we would be lucky if they provided protection to at least 75 percent of those inoculated. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has said it would approve a coronavirus vaccine if it is found to be safe and at least 50 percent effective.
Redfield urged people to continue wearing face masks even after a vaccine is available, and said the pandemic could be quickly brought under control if face masks were universally adopted.
During the same hearing, Redfield also said that a vaccine in the United States would not be widely available until “late in the second quarter or third quarter” of next year.
“If you ask me when it will be available to the general American public so that we can start taking advantage of the vaccine to get back to our normal lives, I think we are probably looking at the third quarter, the end of the second quarter, the third quarter of 2021.” said.
Trump repeats: Vaccine in three or four weeks
US President Donald Trump kept speculation alive about the availability of a coronavirus vaccine ahead of the November 3 presidential election, saying the United States might be “getting it.” within four weeks.
“The previous administration would have taken maybe years to have a vaccine, due to the FDA and all the approvals. We are just weeks away from achieving it. You know, it could be three weeks, four weeks, “he said at a city hall event, according to a Bloomberg news report.
Currently, three vaccine candidates are in late-stage clinical trials in the United States. Of these, the trials being conducted by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca have been suspended due to an incident in which a trial participant in England had developed serious illnesses. Trials in England have since resumed after a committee of independent experts analyzed the incident, but in the US. the pause in judgment remains.
The developer of another of these vaccines, Pfizer, has said that it expected to know by the end of October how effective the vaccine would be, and if this data were satisfactory, it would immediately apply to the US FDA for an emergency authorization.
📣 Express explained is now in Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@ieexplained) and stay up to date with the latest
Distribution of the vaccine in the US will begin within 24 hours of authorization, it would be administered at no cost
The United States government was preparing to begin distributing a coronavirus vaccine within 24 hours after the vaccine obtained an emergency approval or clearance from the drug regulator. A report in The New York Times They cited officials from the Department of Health and Human Services who said they expected a vaccine to be available sometime in the last three months of this year, at least for high-priority groups like healthcare workers.
The same newspaper report also said the idea was to provide the vaccine free of charge to all Americans, although a decision was still pending. The United States government has already paid billions of dollars to various vaccine developers to pre-reserve guaranteed supplies for their candidates when they are ready and approved. The money was intended to accelerate the development of the vaccine and also to advance the hundreds of millions of doses of supplies secured.
There are 180 vaccine candidates in preclinical or clinical trials. (Reuters photo)
The coronavirus vaccine must be a global public good, it must be equally accessible to all, says WHO
The World Health Organization has urged all countries to treat a coronavirus vaccine, when available, as a “global public good” that should be equally accessible to all.
The WHO has published a “framework of values” that aims to guide governments and policy makers in assigning and prioritizing a coronavirus vaccine so that it is available first to the people who need it most, regardless of the countries or regions in which they reside.
“While there has been unprecedented progress in developing a Covid-19 vaccine, supplies of the first vaccine (or vaccines) to be licensed will be limited in the short and medium term. This Framework of Values aims to offer global guidance on the allocation of Covid-19 vaccines between countries and to offer guidance at the national level on prioritizing groups for vaccination within countries, particularly when supply is limited, ”he said. The OMS.
WHO Director-General Tedro Adhanom Ghebreyesus called on countries not to indulge in what’s known as’ vaccine nationalism ‘to refer to countries’ tendencies to stockpile vaccines when they become available.
“The first priority should be to vaccinate some people in all countries, rather than all people in some countries. Vaccine nationalism will prolong the pandemic, not shorten it, “he said.
Search for the coronavirus vaccine: the story so far
- 180 candidate vaccines in clinical or preclinical trials
- 35 of them in clinical trials
- Eight in final stages, phase III human trials
- At least eight candidate vaccines are under development in India. Two of them have entered phase II trials after completing phase I.
- The most talked about
* AstraZeneca / University of Oxford
* Modern
* Pfizer / BioNTech
* Johnson and Johnson
* Sanofi / GlaxoSmithKline
* Novavax
* Russian vaccine, developed by Gamaleya Insttiute in Moscow
(As of Sept. 15; source: WHO Coronavirus Vaccine Overview Sept. 9, 2020)
📣 The Indian Express is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@indianexpress) and keep up to date with the latest headlines
For the latest news explained, download the Indian Express app.
© The Indian Express (P) Ltd
.
