Indore News/ Indore Live News – Sadbhawna Paati
COVID-19, the disease caused by the newly discovered virus SARS-CoV-2, is a national emergency.
We need a vaccine to prevent severe outcomes of disease, to successfully combat future outbreaks of this virus, and to ensure that businesses and schools can safely reopen.
Until one is available, healthcare professionals can mitigate symptoms while deploying existing drugs that may show promise against COVID-19.
Indore News/ Indore Live News – Sadbhawna Paati
Vaccines help prime and prompt a rapid response when the body encounters a virus, allowing for faster recovery from disease.
For example, an inactivated or attenuated (weakened) virus can be injected into the body to teach the immune system that it is dangerous.
The immune system then prepares specialized cells that make defensive proteins called antibodies.
Antibodies stay in the blood and provide immunity long after they are made.
The specialized immune cells last even longer, providing lasting immunity (on the order of decades or lifetimes).
What Is Vaccine
The majority of vaccines are composed of attenuated viruses or isolated molecules, such as proteins on the viral surface, but vaccines can also be small protein fragments, engineered immune cells, and more recently, genetic material such as DNA or RNA.
To generate the more traditional types of vaccines, laboratories mass-produce proteins or research how to uniquely weaken each virus, requiring manpower and increasing the time to development and distribution.
To shorten this time, vaccine researchers take advantage of an important biological concept, the central dogma.
Effects Of Corona
Earlier this year, the biotech company Moderna developed an RNA-based SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, while another company, Inovio, developed a DNA-based vaccine. Indore News Moderna and Inovio both received grants from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), an international organization promoting vaccine research and pandemic preparedness.
For these novel vaccines, optimizing stability, delivery, and manufacturing scale without compromising quality and immune response will matter for eventual distribution. Both private foundations and government agencies are supporting these efforts due to the urgent need for a vaccine against SARS-CoV-2.
How is a vaccine developed
If there are no risk factors or adverse effects in Phase 1 trials, Phase 2 and Phase 3 trials expand to more volunteers, increasing statistical power. Each phase has built-in objectives and endpoints and volunteers are monitored for months. After Phase 3, the vaccine must receive FDA approval before licensing and distribution. Then, Phase 4 is the last and includes ongoing studies of risk and side effects after the vaccine is distributed.
What can we do before a vaccine is available
BARDA, a government agency, provides national funding for companies and programs dedicated to developing drugs and antivirals. The FDA issued EUAs authorizing use without trials and testing for healthcare professionals to test patients, use available ventilators and respirators, and antiviral drugs.
The FDA designates compassionate use for unlicensed experimental drugs in extreme cases. Since then, a Phase 3 trial showed some promise and Gilead has donated doses distributed nationally and internationally to help with the pandemic. The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review, a nonprofit organization, has released its recommendations for the pricing of Remdesivir.
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