Is the nightmare almost over?
Today, two companies – Pfizer and BioNTech – announced that their Coronavirus vaccine had displayed effectiveness against the virus, with preliminary analysis showing that it was over 90% effective in preventing people from getting COVID-19.
It has been tested on 43,500 people and has caused no serious safety concerns as of this moment.
The news has been lauded around the world. If all goes as planned, it could be rolled out by the end of this year.
Of course, there are caveats. It hasn’t been peer reviewed and is still yet to receive emergency approval. However, this marks a great step forward with the UK government’s chief medical advisor, Chris Whitty, saying that it is ‘reason for optimism’.
One significant reason that this news is exciting is that it demonstrates a ‘proof of concept’ that Coronavirus can be stopped with vaccination. Across the world, there are about a dozen organisations working on promising COVID-19 candidate vaccines – all of whom will be encouraged by this news.
Pfizer has confirmed that it will be able to produce 50 million doses by the end of 2020 and 1.3 billion doses in 2021.
The distribution of the vaccine, which requires 2 doses to work, will represent one of the largest public health logistical challenges in modern history, with the most vulnerable people likely to be prioritised.
The vaccine is known as an mRNA vaccine.
No mRNA product has ever been approved by regulators in the past – this represents a significant scientific step forward.
mRNA – or messenger RNA – is produced in the body naturally and plays an important part in how the body works.
Almost every cell in our bodies is filled with DNA, which in turn is made up of a specific sequence of bases. Periodically, the double-helix strands of DNA are ‘unzipped’, and strings of mRNA are produced – using the sequence of DNA bases as a template.
The mRNA then travels across the cell to the ribosome – a piece of cellular apparatus which reads the sequence of bases and produces the corresponding protein that the sequence encodes.
The mRNA vaccine is made up of synthetic strands of mRNA, created in a lab. On this string of mRNA, scientists have encoded a protein that can fight the virus by using a specific sequence of bases. It is essentially ‘tricking’ the body into producing antigens capable of fighting COVID-19.
The vaccine is in early days, but so far, things are looking up.