We wanted to find out more about the vaccine for the novel coronavirus which has affected the world.
First of all, will they be safe? How do vaccines work?
Vaccines save millions of lives each year. They work by training and preparing the body's natural defences, the immune system, to recognise and fight off the viruses and bacteria they target. If the body is exposed to those disease-causing germs later, the body is immediately ready to destroy them, preventing illness.
The WHO remain 'cautiously optimistic' that the vaccines being developed will be safe and effective. An important key note is that the approval for a vaccine, will only be given if the regulator (European Medicines Agency) considers the vaccine to be that of a safe one for the general public
After approval, checks continue to make sure there are no further side effects or long-term risks.
Who is developing the vaccine?
Well, there are plenty of pharmaceutical companies developing this vaccine, however the recent and trialled companies are:
Pfizer - Claiming to be 90% effective.
Moderna - Claiming to be 94% effective.
Oxford - Claiming to be 94.5% effective.
Moderna stated that its Covid-19 vaccine continued to deliver strong efficacy results, showing 94% efficacy in the main analysis of its key study. The company said it would seek immediate clearance for distribution in the U.S. and Europe.
The milestone suggests that there could be two vaccines against the SARS-CoV-2 virus before the end of 2020. Pfizer and BioNTech released positive results for a similar vaccine on Nov. 18, and requested an emergency use authorisation, or EUA, from the Food and Drug Administration two days later.
How are the vaccines distributed?
This is a rather complex issue. Foremost, the vaccines must be manufactured in large quantities. This is a difficult endeavour, we must bare in mind also, that other vaccines for other diseases are important and are required to be manufactured also.
The vaccines themselves will need to be distributed fairly, and through a rather complicated logistical manner.
There has to be careful monitoring of how much stock of the vaccine is managed. The vaccine itself has to be stored in certain temperatures, which makes the whole process even more challenging.