I discuss the update on COVID 19 vaccine in this video. I discuss some of the leading vaccines for preventing COVID 19. Vaccines are the safest way to confer protection to susceptible people at large. The development of a vaccine when it is successful will be one of the leading scientific achievements of this century, touching the lives of every single person in living. See the transcript below-
Welcome! I will be continuing the discussion on vaccines. Today I will be discussing the role of vaccination for COVID-19 and the status of some leading vaccines As of date there are 110 vaccine candidates for the COVID 19 virus in the world. In India, there are about 30 groups trying to develop a vaccine. I will be discussing three vaccines, the Moderna vaccine, the Oxford vaccine and three Novovax vaccine.
In my previous video I had discussed the important concept of herd immunity. To recap, When most of a population is immune to an infectious disease, this provides indirect protection—or herd immunity (also called herd protection)—to those who are not immune to the disease. You will recall that I had mentioned two methods of getting herd immunity; one by natural exposure to the disease and the second by vaccination. Both lead to the development of antibodies by our immune systems.
At present, most countries have decided that vaccination is the safest method of generating herd immunity for the COVID 19 virus as the alternative of natural herd immunity hasn’t succeeded in Sweden and Britain.
The herd immunity threshold for COVID 19 is still uncertain, but many epidemiologists believe it will be reached when between 60% and 80% of the population has been infected or vaccinated and develops resistance. As the option of infection is not being pursued actively only vaccination can achieve this. So vaccines have a most important role.
It is a sobering thought that smallpox was conquered by vaccination but this occurred over two centuries. Development of a successful vaccine at record speed may well become the biggest scientific achievement of the twenty first century and its relevance to the whole of mankind may supersede others.
Vaccines have to deliver if we are to protect ourselves from the harm caused by this virus. It is a huge challenge indeed for scientists.
You will recall that Vaccines work by acting as an antigen or foreign substance to the body. Our bodies don’t recognise this foreign substance and produce antibodies and long-term memory. These antibodies then bind with the real virus when an individual becomes infected later and prevent the virus from invading cells further. Luckily, the coronavirus itself has turned out to be clumsy prey, a stable pathogen unlikely to mutate significantly and dodge a vaccine.
