VaccineStudy.net
Vaccine Study
Almost since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, scientists have been working hard to develop a safe and effective vaccine that can prevent COVID infection. Vaccines have played a vital role in public health by preventing infectious diseases and saving millions of lives since the 18th century.
What are Vaccines?
According to the CDC, vaccines stimulate a person’s immune system to produce immunity against a specific disease. The body can develop this immunity by contracting and recovering from some of these diseases. However, it is much safer for the immune system to learn this through vaccination, especially because some of these diseases like COVID-19 can have a very fatal or unpredictable course.
How vaccines work
Vaccines train the body’s immune system to recognize and fight targeted disease-causing microorganisms (bacteria or virus). This way, future exposures cause the body to quickly identify and destroy such microorganisms, thus preventing illness. Once the immune system learns how to fight a disease, it can often offer protection for many years; sometimes even up to a lifetime. Having a vaccine also benefits the whole community through Herd Immunity.
History of vaccines
The Chinese, Africans, and Turkish used smallpox inoculation to confer protection against smallpox as early as 1000 CE before the practice spread to Europe and America.
In 1796, Edward Jenner inoculated a 13 year-old-boy with cowpox and successfully demonstrated immunity to smallpox. Improvements upon his method led to the development of the first smallpox vaccine in 1798. Mass immunization led to the global eradication of smallpox in 1979.
Louis Pasteur’s experiments led to the development of rabies vaccine, live attenuated cholera vaccine, and inactivated anthrax vaccine in 1885, 1897, and 1904, respectively.
Alexander Glenny inactivated tetanus toxin with formaldehyde in 1923. This method was used to develop a diphtheria vaccine in 1926. Pertussis vaccine development took longer and was first licensed for use in the US in 1948. The plague vaccine was invented in the late 19th Century by Waldemar Haffkine.
Between 1890 and 1950, bacterial vaccine development expanded. From 1950-1985, methods for growing viruses in the laboratory were developed and led to many innovations. Some of these innovations include the inactivated polio vaccine and live attenuated oral polio vaccine. Mass polio immunization has eradicated the disease from many regions around the world. Vaccines containing attenuated strains of measles, mumps, and rubella were also developed and significantly reduced the disease burden. Measles is currently the next possible target for elimination via vaccination.
Recent Developments in Vaccines
Over the past two decades, molecular genetics has increased insights into immunology, microbiology, and genomics in vaccinology. Current successes include recombinant hepatitis B vaccines and new techniques for seasonal influenza vaccine manufacture. Molecular genetics looks promising in developing new vaccine delivery systems, new adjuvants, and the development of more effective vaccines. Disease targets have expanded, and some vaccine research focuses on non-infectious conditions such as addiction and allergies.
Vaccine Safety
Because vaccines’ ultimate goal is to protect public health against life-threatening, there is a need to ensure that any vaccine released into the market is safe and effective. Hence, all vaccines go through rigorous testing to make sure that they are safe for human use.
Vaccine Development
The clinical development of a vaccine follows guidelines issued by Health Regulatory Agencies. Though common principles guide this development, each vaccine follows a unique path depending on characteristics such as the type of vaccine, disease epidemiology, target population, and the availability of a pre-existing vaccine.
The development process is divided into preclinical and clinical stages. The preclinical phase involves the identification of a vaccine candidate drug and testing it on animals. This candidate is then put through to clinical trials in human subjects. These stages are in place to ensure the vaccines are safe and effective when they reach the public.
What is a Vaccine Clinical Trial?
These are clinical trials that help understand a vaccine’s safety, immunogenicity (ability to provoke an immune response in an animal or human body), and efficacy. These trials follow a strict set of rules and regulations.
There are four main phases in a clinical trial. The last step in the vaccine clinical trial process is approval from regulatory agencies like the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products. New vaccines have to go through this approval process before they are made available for end-users.
COVID Vaccine
There is currently no vaccine for COVID-19. Though developing a safe and effective vaccine takes time, more than 200 vaccine candidates are under development, with many in Phase III clinical trials.
Based on what is known about vaccines, experts believe that even if a vaccinated person gets infected, the vaccine will keep them from becoming seriously ill. Vaccination may also protect people around, especially those at increased risk. Getting COVID-19 may offer some natural immunity. But experts don’t know how long this protection lasts, and the risk of severe illness and death from COVID-19 far outweighs any benefits of innate immunity.
Even though COVID-19 vaccines are being developed as rapidly as possible, they can only receive the required regulatory approvals if they meet stringent safety and efficacy standards. The combination of vaccination and CDC’s recommendations remains the best protection from COVID.
