The availability of the Covid-19 Vaccine seems to be the light at the end of the tunnel. With this vaccine, the global standstill will hopefully come to an end. However, despite the need to have this vaccine, the speed with which it was developed gives us a bit of apprehension.
Before the Covid-19 vaccine, the fastest development for a vaccine was the mumps, which took about four (4) years. So, how was the Covid-19 vaccine developed at breakneck speed?
As of January 11, 2021, two (2) vaccines are already approved for full use*, while eight (8) vaccines have been approved for early, limited, or emergency use only. The more-known vaccine is the Comirnaty, developed by pharmaceutical giant, Pfizer, and German company BioNTech. These two companies came into a partnership in March. By May, clinical trials were underway. Six months later, evidence of the efficacy of the vaccine was presented. A month later, approval for emergency use in the United States was granted. All in all, it only took nine months to develop this vaccine.
The other vaccines in the market have pretty much the same story – the vaccine is developed in months instead of years. It makes us wonder what are the factors that contributed to its fast development?
While the process and technology in the research is a breakthrough in itself, other significant factors paved the way for this pharmaceutical revolution.
Advanced Research
While the development of the Covid-19 vaccine only started in March, research that provided the background data were done way before. Scientists have already researched other related coronaviruses (such as the SARS – Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome; and MERS – Middle East Respiratory Syndrome). Covid-19 has similarities with SARS, and this paved the way for swift development.
Budget Availability for the COVID 19 Vaccines
The enormous funding provided by governments, private corporations, and non-profit organizations contributed a lot to the quick development of the vaccine. These budget allocations allowed for parallel and multiple large-scale clinical trials to test the efficacy of the vaccine.
Worldwide Cooperability Against the spread of COVID 19
The urgency of this coronavirus vaccine was instilled in everyone worldwide. Therefore, unprecedented cooperation of everyone involved was seen globally.
Recruitment of human participants for the phase 3 trials** was without much difficulty. For the Comirnaty vaccine, they were able to test more than 40,000 individuals of various ethnicity. This was 30% above their target of 30,000 participants.
Partnerships between companies were also forged in a matter of months, as seen with Pfizer and BioNTech. This allowed these pharmaceuticals to share their strengths.
Regulators also expedited the process and review of the vaccine. Most regulators monitored the progress of the vaccines that were in the works. As such, they were able to provide quick approvals as needed.
At present, there are still around 80 vaccines that are in varying stages of clinical trials. While the factors mentioned above contributed to the speedy development of the vaccines, it is important to understand that aside from these, each company also has internal reasons for being able to quickly provide an end-product.
As we are waiting for the availability of the vaccine in the Philippines, safety measures when going out should still be practiced. Staying at home in your Crown Asia premium home is still recommended. Crown Asia and its homeowners also continue to implement safety procedures in their themed communities and premium condominiums to ensure that its communities are always safe.
UPDATE:
With the COVID 19 vaccines now available to most of the country’s population. Heavy mobilization and vaccination processes were launched overall the country. Different local government units as well as private institutions are working hand in hand to increase the vaccinated population of the country.
As of the update of this blog, this January 20th of 2022, there are around 56 million people already fully vaccinated against the COVID 19 virus helping lessen the infections and overall effect of the pandemic. This totals to around 51.1% of the total population already vaccinated and has a better protection against the virus.
With the new year comes another threat to the health of the Filipinos, the new variant, the OMICRON variant has increased the number of daily cases in the country resulting in the strong implementation of the alert level protocols in major cities and provinces in the country. It’s a good thing that most of the population is vaccinated thus resulting in milder and less threatening cases among the population. Although not that potent as the previous variants of the COVID virus, extreme measures and adherence to the basic health protocols should still be observed in order to fully manage and hopefully end the pandemic.
To know more about the omicron variant click here.
Since the onset of the pandemic last 2020 here in the Philippines, people have been longing for the return of their pre-pandemic lives, but in order to achieve it, everyone should practice safety precautions like following basic health protocols, but most importantly, its better to get vaccinated. If you are still not vaccinated, schedule yours now!
* in at least one country in the world
** in phase 3 trials, the vaccine is given to thousands of people to test for efficacy
References:
Ball, Philip. (December 18, 2020) The lightning-fast quest for Covid-19 vaccines – and what it means for other diseases. Nature. Retrieved from https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-03626-1
Our progress in developing an investigational covid-19 vaccine. Pfizer. Retrieved from https://www.pfizer.com/science/coronavirus/vaccine
Zimmer, Carl. Corum, Jonathan. Wee, Sui-Lee. (January 12, 2021) Coronavirus Vaccine Tracker. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/science/coronavirus-vaccine-tracker.html
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