These early results showed that the vaccine worked to trigger an immune response with mild side effects: fatigue, chills, headache, muscle pain, pain at the injection site. But the vaccine will still have to pass a large Phase 3 trial, expected to begin later this month, before regulators consider whether the vaccine is available.
The conversation, done over the phone and lightly edited for flow, is below.
A realistic timeline
CNN: Could you give us an overview of where we are in the US vaccine development process, and what do you think would be a realistic timeline?
Modern is the furthest here. This has received much support from the United States. They just received $ 500 million to increase production of the vaccine. They claim that they have identified their dosage that they want to move forward with, but have not even started Phase 3. So this is very unusual to start production when it is not even known if it basically works.
Now, you know that yes, the antibody works, but you don’t know compared to placebo if it prevents infection.
So the bet is that the US government will give these companies huge amounts of money to increase production before they even start Phase 3. And so, if it works the day it is proven that the study is safe and effective, they don’t have to take 6 to 12 months to make all the vaccines.
It is a very different approach to what has been done. And so, Moderna and the Oxford group claim they will have a viable product by the end of this calendar year.
Science advances faster than ever
CNN: Given that vaccine development is usually measured in years rather than months, how come there are vaccine candidates ready to start Phase 3 trials?
RM: The technology has improved significantly.
All they needed was the genetic makeup, the structure. They needed the structure of the virus, which they obtained in January from the Chinese. And once it took off inside, I think within 60 days, they had a vaccine candidate.
So the molecular techniques are amazing. I mean, think about HIV, April 1981. They found this disease funny and it took them two and a half years to even figure out what caused it. It has been amazing what has happened since 1981. The technology has just advanced and we are reaping the benefits.
The other big difference with this is that it is an RNA virus and it is a coronavirus, which are SARS and MERS. And so people were already working on a vaccine for those. They are all closely related.
So, they already had experience with these coronaviruses and then with the complete RNA virus, some of the drugs like Ebola and hepatitis C, there are many similarities and some of the drugs may work for others. They have tried to reuse a lot of drugs. It really hasn’t worked too well, but you know, at least they have categories of medications that they can use to move forward.
What a launch will look like
CNN: Once a vaccine is made available, what would the launch be like? Is it reasonable to assume that certain demographics that are most vulnerable to the virus would contract it first?
RM: Well, I’m not a government-registered public health official, so I will be; if the current government remains in place, there will be no plan.
If there is a new administration, chances are there is some kind of central control, I think. For polio in the 50s and 60s, they had the same thing. They had the vaccine and they put it into practice, and they worked with churches and communities to really get everyone together.
So there was a massive deployment of the vaccine, but that took months. You can’t just say, ‘Send me 12 million vials of vaccine to Illinois.’ It will take time to unfold.
If you’re going to do it quickly, you should use something like existing retail groups like CVS or Walgreens or Walmart or something where they have some kind of medical problem there, or just pharmacies, urgent care centers. You will have to use basically every possible way to vaccinate as many people as possible. So of course you have the entire anti-vaccine group up and running. So we are not sure how many people are willing, even will be willing to take it. So that’s another thing.
Masks and vaccines.
CNN: I’m glad you mentioned that. Dr. Anthony Fauci has expressed specific concern in this regard. What should the government do now in terms of a vaccine education effort?
RM: Well it’s the same with the masks. What would a successful prevention measure effort look like? You would have respected people and celebrities on posters, television and radio, and you would be an example at all levels of government and society to promote mask or vaccine prevention.
I would ask the President to roll up his shirt and take the first dose. You need to send the signal that this is good.
CNN: Anything else you want to add?
RM: Well, people who are afraid of vaccines have been beaten, there is a lot of madness out there.
Everything has to be put into perspective, think about what you get in a vaccine product. You talk about one or two cc of the vaccine protein, whatever it is.
And there are preservatives there, but they really are in these minuscule amounts. Consider the air we breathe, consider the water we drink, consider our environment and the food we eat, everything that’s there now: what’s in the vaccine is nothing compared to the things we’re exposed to every day. days.
People don’t realize that. I mean, if you stay in the garage with the engine running in your car, you’ll be dead in an hour. And cars circulate all over the place. They are really polluting and power plants and everything. I mean, you have to put all of this in perspective, right?
Do you want to live with this pandemic or not?
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