A Quest for a Cure for COVID-19: The Vaccine Story

By Ir. Dr. Gomesh Nair 

Hundreds of millions of people have been affected by COVID-19, and the death toll around the globe has reached 3 million and is still rising. 

The search for a cure may seem far-fetched, with the implementation of preventative mechanisms currently our only viable solution to this disease, but many researchers have been actively pursuing an effective vaccine to bring the pandemic to an end. 

Road to creating a vaccine

Did you know that the research on vaccine development against the virus didn’t just happen 2 years ago during the initial outbreak?

Two activities predate the development of the COVID-19 vaccines that have recently been approved by the World Health Organization (WHO) and brought to market, which are:

• the implementation of new Vaccine platforms such as RNA 
• the design of immunogens that powerfully stimulate the body's immune system. 

The discovery of an immunogen adaptable to multiple platforms such as messenger RNA, as used within COVID-19 vaccines, resulted from collaboration across different scientific sub-specialities. 

This initiative commenced earlier in the pursuit of a cure for HIV, and a vaccine for The Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). 

It was within the Vaccine Research Center (VRC) of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases where researchers have strived for many years to use the tools of structure-based vaccine design to understand and decide on the optimal structure of a protein from a virus.

This is also known as the envelope protein, which permits HIV to cling on to cells and ultimately triggers the production of antibodies that eventually neutralize many HIV viral strains. The output from this research established a platform for working on the COVID-19 vaccines.

Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash

How was the vaccine for COVID-19 developed so fast?

Vaccine development is a laborious process, and usually takes years to develop, but with global danger at hand, drastic action was needed to reduce the number of deaths and infections.

There was also a need to prevent a chain reaction that if left unchecked would likely have knocked out entire healthcare systems and economies. 

So, to answer the question, many initiatives were taken by countries to expedite the process such as Operation Warp Speed, ACTIV, the COVID-19 Prevention Trials Network (COVPN), COVAX, and many more. 

When scientists first learned about SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, they weren't starting from scratch. Researchers discovered the viral sequence of SARS-CoV-2 in January 2020, roughly 10 days after the first reported pneumonia cases in Wuhan, China, thanks to advances in genomic sequencing. Due to the collaboration of experts and resources, the Covid-19 vaccine was created in a record speed of 1 year.

How does the COVID-19 vaccine work?

Photo by CDC on Unsplash

The vaccines work similarly to others, where the body makes and utilises all the germ-fighting tools it possesses to overcome the infection. The first time a person is infected with the virus, it can take several days or weeks for their body to make and use all the germ-fighting tools needed to get over the infection. 

After the infection, the person’s immune system remembers what it learned from protecting the body against that disease. The body does this by keeping a few T-lymphocytes, called “memory cells”, that go into action quickly if the body encounters the same virus again. 

How will the vaccine help prevent the virus from spreading?

When someone obtains an effective vaccination, their chances of contracting COVID-19 are reduced if they come into contact with the coronavirus. The vaccine's effectiveness in preventing major disease, hospitalisation, and death is more significant. 

At this time, all three vaccines are highly effective in preventing COVID-19-related serious illness, hospitalisation, and death. Because of widespread vaccination, the coronavirus will infect fewer people. 

This will limit the virus's ability to spread through communities while also limiting its ability to mutate into new variants.

Additionally, unvaccinated persons were roughly five times more likely to be infected with Covid than those who had the vaccine, according to the new study, which was published in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

The study also concluded that those who are unvaccinated are 29 times more likely to be hospitalised for Covid-19 compared to those who are fully vaccinated.

Photo by Marisol Benitez on Unsplash

Final Thoughts

It should be noted that a person will not normally be fully protected if it is less than 2 weeks after their final vaccine shot. Even after being vaccinated, they may need to continue to practice physical distancing as well as comply with all the COVID-19 prevention SOP from the government to help reduce the risk of getting infected. So, play your part in fighting the virus by getting vaccinated.