While millions of coronavirus cases have been reported, efforts to make a vaccine against the virus are soaring high all over the world. For now, a vaccine seems to be the only source to put an end to the pandemic. Meanwhile, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the White House health advisor said that they are not sure about the efficacy of the vaccine against the coronavirus.
Since efforts to ease the lockdown are in progress, Dr. Fauci, on Tuesday gravely alerted the Senate Committee related to Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions about the coronavirus vaccine update. Although the development of coronavirus vaccine is not possible for almost another year and a half, the United States authorities are looking forward to it as a breakthrough against the virus.
While there is no medication proven to be effective against the coronavirus, the vaccines are in the experimental phase that will be produced on a large scale to be provided to nearly 8 billion people in different countries all across the globe.
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Fauci mentioned another complication in the development of the vaccine saying that a vaccine can be developed accurately but there is no guarantee that it will induce an effective immune response in the body which will be long-lasting. Hence, he raised a question on the efficacy of the vaccine and there is a possibility of failure of vaccine.
He also said that a major concern of the Epidemiologists is that the vaccine has a negative adverse effect by strengthening the virus instead of defeating it.
According to the stats provided by the World Health Organization (WHO), till April 30, nearly a hundred vaccines are being developed all over the world in different countries out of which 8 vaccines are already in the phase of clinical trials.
The latest coronavirus vaccine update is that Moderna, a biotech company is on the path of the successful development of an effective vaccine facilitated by the National Institutes of Health.
The probable vaccine being developed by Moderna consists of the genetic material created in the lab. It is constituted with messenger RNA or more commonly known as mRNA. The company is finalizing the first phase of the trial and will enter phase two of the trials which will include 600 candidates.
Moderna also said last week that the planning for the trial at a later stage have been concluded by the company and will begin as soon as possible during this summer.
Fauci said that until the vaccine is ready to be administered in public, the authorities should continue the efforts to control the outbreak in the country.
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He shared his concern mentioning that there have been more or less two vaccines produced previously which induced an insignificant immune response in the body due to which the virus was even more pathogenic to the individual upon exposure to the pathogen. Therefore, it should be made sure that this situation does not happen with the coronavirus vaccine as it can be difficult to contain.
Although it is a worrisome situation, Fauci is cautiously positive that a vaccine candidate will be developed with enough efficiency percentage to induce herd immunity in the population of the country that will protect against the virus.
An optimistic COVID-19 vaccine update is desperately being sought after by the public so that people can return to their everyday life as soon as possible.
