The official name for disease is COVID-19, short for corona virus Disease-2019. The WHO declared COVID-19 as global pandemic on March 11, 2020. The covid19 has been spreading at a supersonic speed as a severe deadly disease, There are no drugs or other proven therapeutic options to prevent or treat COVID-19. Since the number of people infected with COVID-19 continues to rise in alarming rate globally, the full extent and severity of this outbreak still remains unclear.
vaccines would be made from a weakened or killed virus. Recently, there has been a focus on using one or two molecules from the surface of a virus, rather than injecting a person with a whole virus.
Virus vaccines: At least seven teams are developing vaccines using the virus itself, in a weakened or inactivated form. Many existing vaccines are made in this manner. E.g. those against measles and polio. However, these types of vaccines require extensive safety testing. Notably, Sinovac Biotech in Beijing has started to test an inactivated version of SARS-CoV-2 in humans.
Viral-vector vaccines: A virus such as measles or adenovirus is genetically engineered so that it can produce coronavirus proteins in the body. These viruses themselves are weakened so they cannot cause disease. There are two types: those that can still replicate within cells and those that cannot because key genes have been disabled.
Nucleic-acid vaccines: Aiming to use genetic instructions (in the form of DNA or RNA) for a coronavirus protein that induces an immune response. The nucleic acid is inserted into human cells, which then churn out copies of the virus protein – typically these vaccines encode the virus’ spike protein.
Currently scientists are trying to accomplish something that was inconceivable a decade ago -- creating a vaccine against a previously unknown virus rapidly enough to help end an existing outbreak. The current trials have been expedited in unprecedented ways. However, even if we get a clear answer in the coming months, there is still this huge problem of manufacturing and scaling-up that needs to be addressed.
Scientists have fact-tracked every step in the discovery and testing process and hope to have a vaccine against nCoV2019 ready in 10 to 18 months. Even this seemingly long timeline does not guarantee safety or efficacy in the larger human population. With so much at stake, a vaccine is needed immediately yet at the same time we should be weary of cutting corners in the vaccine discovery, testing, approval process. In the meantime, we will need to continue adhering to social distancing and practicing heightened personal hygiene to contain the spread of the virus.
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