Delaney Norris, Staff Writer
VACCINE: Finding a vaccine has been a long process, but now, but now, there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
Throughout the year of 2020, the world has struggled against the COVID-19 virus. There have been over 282,000 deaths and 13.7 million cases in the USA as of the writing of this article, and a total of 67 million cases and 1.54 million deaths worldwide. As of now, there is no known cure for COVID-19, but soon, there may be a way to prevent infection in the first place.
Scientists have been hard at work since the pandemic started, trying to make a vaccine available to the public as soon as possible. But before that can happen, the prospective vaccine needs to be tested on human and animal cells for safety and efficacy. In these studies, vaccine candidates are tested on small groups of people. These participants will be given a variety of possible vaccines, as well as some participants being given a placebo, and researchers will closely monitor the participants’ immune responses. If the immune system generally reacts well to a vaccine, it will advance to further trials. These trials involve patients going about their normal lives, and being exposed at some point to the Covid-19 virus. Researchers then measure how many people who had the vaccine got infected, and how many who did not have the vaccine got infected. If the vaccine is considered safe and effective after these experimental trials, it will be cleared for release to the public.
The scientists working on the vaccine aim to have the first round of doses ready by the end of 2020, but there may not be enough to vaccinate every adult until supplies increase over time. Realistically, all adults should be able to get vaccinated by sometime in 2021. Small children may have longer to wait and may not get the vaccine until further studies are completed, as children have not been given the vaccine yet, and as such the effects are still unknown.
Currently, a huge company making the vaccines is Pfizer. Pfizer is an American pharmaceutical company. The company’s vaccine has already been tested on over 44,000 people and has been authorized by the food and drug administration, which has allowed for shipments to begin.
The vaccine is projected to be available to the general public in 2021. This is an exciting prospect; an effective vaccine has the potential to get our lives back on track and end this pandemic, but until then, all we can do is wait.
To learn more about COVID-19, please visit: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/index.html