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The vaccine race, as it is known, began from the first weeks of the Covid-19 pandemic, with several countries and companies engaged and a sense of ‘race against time’ that risks compromising the safety levels of the vaccines. studies on about that. If China has already launched a vaccine for military use and the Russians flaunt their ‘Sputnik’ vaccine, about which the scientific community has expressed enormous doubts due to the very few tests carried out, the stop of Astra Zeneca due to abnormal reactions in a volunteer it reminds us how delicate matters can be.
The vaccine race also has purely political implications, of pure propaganda in the Russian case and of intervention on the moment in the case of the United States. Where is Donald trump would like to stand in the November election with a vaccine ready to present to the voters while Anthony Fauci, the immunologist at the head of his scientific team, reiterates that it will not be possible to have a safe and sufficiently proven vaccine until mid-2021.
WHO: “No compromises”
“The safety of a possible coronavirus vaccine comes first. Just because we talk about speed does not mean that we will begin to compromise or take shortcuts in what would normally be evaluated. However, the procedure must follow the rules of the game. In the case of drugs and vaccines that are administered to people, their safety must first be proven. ” These are the words of the chief scientist of the World Health Organization Soumya Swaminathan, in an indirect comment on AstraZeneca’s announcement to suspend global trials, even those at a more advanced stage, of its coronavirus vaccine due to an adverse reaction detected in a volunteer.
The Italian immunologist: “Vaccine not credible for 2020”
“It is not credible that we will have a vaccine against Covid-19” within a year. “The announcement that could come” surprised me because instead the scientific community, the World Health Organization, all say that the vaccine will not arrive before early spring 2021, of course if all goes well. ” Antonella Viola, an immunologist from the University of Padua, speaking in ‘Agorà’ on Rai 3.
“What happened” with the suspension of these hours, explains Viola, “is the reason why phase III clinical trials are carried out. Stages in which the vaccine is used in a large number of volunteers and therefore it can be evaluated effectively if there are unexpected reactions, even rare. Because it is true that “in this case” it only happened to one in every 50 thousand people, but then the vaccine must be distributed to billions of people – specifies the expert – so we must be absolutely sure that these reactions do not occur ”.
The immunologist emphasizes how at this moment the stop decided by AstraZeneca is a “due” act, which “serves to understand what caused the observed reaction: it is not necessarily connected” to the administered vaccine “, but it needs to be studied seriously. And in any case it is something normal – Viola reiterates – that happens during the experiments and is the reason why we are not unbalanced by saying that the vaccine will be ready in November, but it will probably arrive in the spring of 2021“.
“What happened – emphasizes the specialist – is an example of the transparency of scientific research that is directed” towards the objective of a product-shield against the new coronavirus “, even if only in Europe and the United States. Because although countries like Russia and China have registered their vaccine even in the absence of a complete phase III – observes Viola – here it is clear that both in Europe and in America the experimentation is very careful, so a small signal is enough for it to be communicated in the first place. to the entire scientific community and then so that the necessary controls are carried out. “
So let’s put our hearts at peace: 2021 will be another difficult year, in which we will be able to defend ourselves above all with distancing, the correct use of masks and possibly the drugs that are used in current treatment protocols. In the spring of 2021 it will be possible to start having reliable vaccination solutions.
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