COVID-19 VACCINE
17.10.2021
The major question on everyone’s lips remains “Can COVID-19 be treated?”
Well, governments, scientists and drug companies have been working very hard to find a cure. So far, Remdesivir, an antiviral agent, was the first drug to gain full FDA approval for the treatment of COVID-19 in October 2020. While many investigational treatments exist, only Remdesivir and Dexamethasone (a steroid medication) have been approved to lower death rate in hospitalized covid 19 patients.
Research has established that hospitals, although vital to health systems, have never been the solution to public health problems. Consequently, vaccination is regarded as the means to the end of COVID 19, through achieving herd immunity. This is why vaccination and the hope to attain herd immunity remains the cul de grace- a final trump card to bring an end to COVID-19. The vaccine rollout started as early as late December 2020 in countries like Israel but became very popular in other countries by April 2021, especially in countries that took big hits in terms of death rates like France, Italy, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom.
Different types of COVID vaccine include:
- Protein Subunit: Novavax is working on a protein subunit COVID-19 vaccine
- Viral Vector: The Janssen/Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine is a vector vaccine. AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford also have a vector COVID-19 vaccine
- Nucleic Acid (RNA AND DNA): ThePfizer-BioNTech and the Moderna COVID-19 vaccines use mRNA.
Despite success with vaccine availability, reaching herd-immunity thresholds has been impossible because of factors such as vaccine hesitancy, emergence of new variants and the delayed arrival of vaccinations for children. In most countries, vaccine distribution is stratified by age, with priority given to older people, who are at the highest risk of dying from COVID-19. Therefore, some vulnerable groups are left out; for example, children (who have less developed active immunity) or adults that have medical conditions or are undergoing specific cancer treatment that cause them to produce few or no antibodies in response to a vaccine. With herd immunity, the spread of the virus in communities are reduced and most people are protected by default.
Currently, Pfizer–BioNTech and Moderna have now enrolled teens in clinical trials of their vaccines, and the Oxford–AstraZeneca and Sinovac Biotech vaccines are being tested in children as young as three. Vaccination rates have also been highly variable across regions in countries. In Canada for example, Yukon, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia have total fully vaccinated above 70% while Nunavut has only 52%. The situation in the United States is even more variable with Vermont at 68% and Alabama at 39%.
As of October 2021, 62.2% of the U.S. population have had at least one vaccine dose and 52.8% are fully vaccinated. Worldwide, only about 36.5% are fully vaccinated. These percentages are constantly changing.
Estimates from the United Kingdom show that two doses of the Pfizer vaccine are between 85% and 95% effective against symptomatic disease with the Alpha variant, while two doses of AstraZeneca are 70% to 85% effective. Overall, vaccine effectiveness appears to drop about 10% with the Delta variant. With the increase in variants, which may be more infectious and could potentially impact the effectiveness of vaccines, that percentage is now estimated to be higher—some say up to 85%.
Thankfully,, there has been massive support from international organizations like the WHO, UN and Gavi COVAX initiatives and even from non-profit organizations. In Canada, some bodies like the Canadian Red Cross society have increased funding to nonprofit organizations involved in COVID 19 relief in any way. A couple of Canadian nonprofit and charity organizations have been pooling resources together to help different communities manage the crisis. Bless world foundation international has also been engaging communities during this pandemic; specifically, the cradle2fame program aims to support and help with talent development.
Finally, there has been a truly gruesome journey but the world is adapting to this whole change.With up and downs to things returning back to status quo, the post covid era is taking longer than we thought
It takes time to heal and time will heal.
Stay safe.