Do not let yourself be tainted with a barren skepticism.
– Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) French biologist and microbiologist, inventor of pasteurization, fermentation, and discoverer of the principles of vaccination
A vaccine is any non-harmful preparation whose purpose is to induce an immune response through the production of specific antibodies against a certain pathogen. There are many ways to prepare and design a vaccine, but they all have the same goal: to “train” our body to fight specific diseases.
While traditional vaccines are based on the insertion of a fragment of the pathogen itself, genetic vaccines (DNA or RNA based) use part of the genetic code of the virus to stimulate a response in the immune system. In other words, while with traditional vaccines we introduce the pathogen (or something that mimics the pathogen), with genetic vaccines we introduce the instructions to make the pathogen. The body reaction to the vaccine does not change however.
While we’re at it: DNA stands for deoxyribonucleic acid, and RNA stands for ribonucleic acid. In the human organism, DNA is in the form of a double helix, and its role is to replicate and store genetic information. It’s our archive, our hardware. RNA, on the other hand, has only one helix, and converts DNA information into a format for building proteins (which are our softwares). NOTE: human genetics is different from virus genetics. The coronavirus is an RNA virus, there is no DNA, and its genetic information is contained only in the RNA.
Vaccine development consists of three parts: research (also called the pre-clinical phase), clinical trials, and manufacturing. In normal circumstances, this process can take up to 20 years, but during a pandemic, research is equipped to shorten the time. How do we jump this queue? The preclinical part of vaccine development aims to find a way to introduce the virus into the host organism and stimulate an immune response. There are many ways to do this, but generally the most effective designs are also the slowest to produce. Traditional vaccines, such as smallpox or chickenpox, are created by inserting an “attenuated” (harmless) version of the pathogen (or something that behaves very like the pathogen) into the body. These vaccines generate the longest protection, but they have to be produced by growing the virus in vitro for years. Another way to build a vaccine is to use an inactive pathogen, that is a pathogen which has been heated, or put in acid to weaken it, and this is a faster method of production. Then there are vaccines that put in a fragment of the viral protein, and these too can be created quickly. There are many vaccine designs, and each has its pros and cons, and the best way for research to move fast is to coordinate multiple labs, with each lab testing a different design. Such a “coordinated strategy” produced the Zika vaccine in 7 months (so no, the Covid vaccine is not the first one produced this quickly).
Clinical trials contain three phases (Phase I, Phase II to Phase III mentioned so often on TV). Phase I tests the immune system’s response and tries to figure out if the vaccine is effective. Phase II is used to figure out the right dose and how to package it. Phase III is the one that determines the safety of the vaccine and any of its side effects. In extreme circumstances the three phases, rather than proceeding one after the other, can run at the same time in a single phase. All three phases must still be performed, and no vaccine makes it to the commercial phase without passing these three phases of clinical trials. If the vaccine passes Phase III a national body (the EMA in Europe, the FDA in the USA, the MHRA in the UK) approves it for large-scale production and distribution.
This is all beautifully summarized in this TED video.
Currently (on January the 7th 2021) 172 vaccines are in pre-clinical trials and 63 are in clinical trials. Of the latter, 15 are in Phase III trials, and 3 have been approved for the market (from Pfizer-BioNTech, a German-U.S. collaboration, Moderna, from the U.S., and Oxford-AstraZeneca, from the UK). All of the approved vaccines are administered via injection (I am saying this for those who, like my father and me, are afraid of syringes and were hoping for a range of flavored consumable vaccines…maybe when the Italians get theirs on the market…pasta-Pfizer, Moderna-della, or a CinZeneca anyone?).
(the only one currently approved by WHO):
EFFICACY: 95%
DOSES: 2 doses at a 3 week interval
VACCINE DESIGN: mRNA
PRESERVATION: only in freezer a –70°C
(Just approved by EMA -European Medical Agency- to be distributed in EU):
EFFICACY: 94.5%
DOSES: 2 doses at a 4 week interval
VACCINE DESIGN: mRNA
PRESERVATION: 30 days in the fridge, then maximum of 6 months at –20°C
(currently distributed in UK, Argentina and India):
EFFICACY: up to 90%
DOSES: 2 doses at a 4-12 week interval
VACCINE DESIGN: viral vector
PRESERVATION: normal refrigeration, at least for 6 months
In the UK, only 3 people out of 1.3 million vaccinated have been reported to have suffered an allergic reaction, and only 21 (out of 1.9 million vaccinated) have been reported from the US, thus classifying the anaphylactic reaction as “extremely rare”.
To date, 260,000 people have been vaccinated in Italy.
Israel, with a rate of 19.5 people vaccinated per 100 people, is the nation furthest ahead with the vaccination campaign (Italy = 0.68, UK = 1.91, USA = 1.79).
Below are the links I used for this work, so you can look them up too:
The Economist Docuseries | Now & Next is the Economist’s series of documentaries and films dedicated to the modern era. In this documentary, they talk about vaccines, and how and why a “bubble” of unconscious distrust has grown around them. Only 24 minutes, but very engaging, although delivered in a journalistic style.
Inside the mind of Bill Gates | For some reasons that I still struggle to grasp, somehow, somewhere, at some point, the entropic chaos that is the Internet gave birth to a gigantic complot theory about Bill Gates being part of an intergovernmental mob, aiming to mind-control people through vaccines, or trying to kill everyone, or to enslave humanity (well, American humanity) and sell it to China (depending on which source you decide to read, and I certainly haven’t mentioned them all). The articles against him are pure complot theory trash, and range from the clinically alarming to the vaguely envious/polemic. We recommend this Netflix mini-series about Bill Gates and his thinking, and his idea of developing an integrated and comprehensive medical system that combines biology, genetics, engineering and computer tech.
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