Vaccines are a win-win for all. Including Covid-19 vaccines. We are all exposed to, and infected by germs, such as bacteria, fungi, protozoans, or viruses. Some will not cause disease, while others will cause serious disease to some of us, sometimes leading to epidemics and pandemics. One of the most powerful biomedical interventions to prevent the contraction and spread of diseases is vaccination. The Spanish flu of 1918-1920 is estimated to have infected about 500 million people and killed between 20-50 million people; then came flu vaccines that significantly control influenza up till today. We owe the eradication of small pox, and very soon, the eradication of polio mainly to vaccines. The recent containment and control of Ebola in Africa is due to vaccines. All over the world, the significant reductions in child mortality is mainly due to vaccinations against bacterial and viral germs. By receiving a vaccine, we are immunized to the disease the vaccine is directed against. Vaccines have improved human well-being and advanced civilization for decades.
As of the date of writing Covid-19, has so far, killed more than five million people worldwide. And more may die in the future. Measures to curb the spread of the virus, such as travel restrictions and the closure of businesses led to enormous disruptions in education, travel, commerce and trade, culture, families and routines of daily life. Many people lost their jobs, others became impoverished, access to health services were disrupted. In the face of these enormous challenges, scientists set to work to develop vaccines against Covid-19. Although the vaccines are different in terms of how they were developed and dosing, they are all aimed at preventing disease, hospitalization, and deaths, and ending the pandemic, something that all of us are very eager to see.
There is a lot of anxiety among a significant proportion of people around the world about accepting Covid-19 vaccines. I have witnessed this anxiety within my own family and among friends and acquaintances. Some people are sceptical about the safety of the vaccines, citing the relatively short time it took to make the vaccines.
There reasons why Covid-19 vaccines were developed and available for use within a relatively short time. Some of these reasons include:
(1) The availability of advanced technologies for vaccine development.
(2) The quick realization the vaccines are well tolerated and safe; and the individual produces enough antibodies that are protective against the virus. Without evidence that a vaccine will be well tolerated and that is there is potential to induce protection, progress is stalled.
(3) The rapid availability of volunteers for large vaccine trials so that more data on safety and protection from diseases and hosptalization can be gathered.
(4) The priority given by data management and safety boards (DMSB) and by regulatory bodies to urgently review data from vaccine trials.
(5) The ‘financial gamble’ taken by many governments to start manufacturing some of the vaccines once a good chance that they will be safe and protective was perceived. This type of a gamble has never been done before in vaccine production.
Some people think Covid-19 vaccines will destroy our DNA. The components of the Covid-19 vaccines do not get integrated into our DNA, so the chance that they will destroy our DNA is almost nil. The mRNA used in the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines is processed in the cytoplasm to produce proteins corresponding to the proteins on the surface of the virus. The viral protein produced in the cytoplasm is what induces the immune response by the host, thereby providing protection when the real virus infects the body. As with all biomedical interventions, there is always room for improvement to enhance efficacy and utility of vaccines, and this happens with the accumulation of data and evidence over time. Covid-19 vaccines are a win-win for all and should be welcome developments; all governments and the private sector should seek ways and means to procure Covid-19 vaccines for their people. Getting vaccinated against Covid-19 and in combination with social distancing, hand sanitizing, and wearing of masks to cover our nose and mouth in public places, and by ventilating our homes more, we can keep the virus in proper check and ultimately eradicate it from our communities.
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