Dr. Rafiq Islam (Kansas City) : Locked in home for nearly two months has devastating effect on world economy and mental health. I remember the three days I spent with many college and university students in Hizbul Bahar in the Bay of Bengal. Although the air was fresh, pure and cool, we were allowed walk around anywhere on the ship, delicious rich foods aplenty, night were filled with music and other entertainments , yet at the end of third day, I felt tired and eager and longing to return to land, where air is polluted, the roads are dirty, noisy and crowded. We all are tired staying home, and want to get out to normal life, but are also scared- always in the back of mind outside home, am I picking up the culprit somewhere! Until we have treatment that will curtail the number of death significantly and/or have an effective vaccine to prevent its infection, we will never be able to return to the normal life we knew. Thus, the race to develop a safe vaccine against coronavirus is underway. The stakes couldn’t be higher this time to fully restart economies and resume civic life.
Here is some update on three promising vaccine initiatives.
A vaccine is possible against COVID-19: Not all viruses generate natural protective immunity, so the first thing is of course to determine whether a vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 is possible at all. This can be determined from the observation that people who have recovered from COVID-19 were immune to getting it again, that is, develop natural immunity. Until this week that hadn’t been established, even in animals. Now a study at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston published in the journal Science on Wednesday found that nine recovered rhesus macaque monkeys (from COVID-19) developed natural protective immunity against re-infection.
Chinese vaccine shows early promise: Chinese researchers on Friday published a study in the British medical journal The Lancet on an early candidate vaccine tested on 108 healthy adults in Wuhan, China. People receiving all three doses showed some level of response- most developed a type of antibody that can attach to the virus, do not destroy it. Some also developed so-called neutralizing antibodies to kill the virus. The trial is in the early stage and yet unknown whether it can generate enough of these neutralizing antibodies. It is scheduled to be tested in Canada soon.
$1.2 billion for first dibs on untried vaccine: Last week, Oxford’s Jenner Institute Oxford reported that a single dose of the vaccine caused six rhesus macaque monkeys to develop antibodies to coronavirus within 28 days, but did not protect them from becoming infection. However, it prevented them from developing pneumonia and lung inflammatory disease, the hallmark of COVID-19. On Thursday the United States has pledged to pay as much as $1.2 billion to get early access to 300 million doses of this vaccine, which is still being developed and in early clinical trials in humans.
Moderna vaccine appears safe: On Monday, Moderna announced its candidate vaccine appeared to be safe when given to eight humans. Participants in this Phase 1 clinical trial made neutralizing antibodies to the virus. When tested on human cells in the laboratory the antibodies stopped the virus from reproducing. Moderna is using a radically new approach, known as mRNA, compared to traditional approach used in the above. If successful, this will dramatically reduce cost to develop vaccine.