As we come
to the end of 2020, people are seeing hope for the end of the pandemic as various
Covid19 vaccines are in their final clinical testing stage. The Pfizer vaccine
is one of them and it has now been approved for emergency usage in several
countries such as the United Kingdom and Canada. Despite announced to having a
90% efficacy, it still receives mixed opinions from the public. With the launch
of several Covid-19 vaccines around the world, we will now need to weigh the
pros and cons of taking the vaccine to make a crucial decision that will affect
not only our individual lives but the global community.
Vaccines are
crucial to combat Covid-19 and enable us all to return to a semblance of normal
life before the pandemic. Vaccines will help us achieve herd immunity. Herd
immunity will only happen when a half or a third of a population has the
immunity to defend themselves from the virus. It’s estimated that an infected
person can spread the virus to at least two or three people. If a lot of people
are already immune to the virus, then the spread of the virus will be
contained. Thus, this is where the role of vaccine becomes very important.
Vaccine can provide Covid-19 immunity in a safer way. When 75% of the community
has been vaccinated, the risk of a person getting the virus will be lower. Therefore,
we will all be able to go outside again, back to our daily activities.
Even though
we all know the benefit of being vaccinated, the short time it took to test the
vaccine is one of the main reasons people are hesitant to take the vaccine. Countries
are rushing to be one of the first to have a viable vaccine. US Government even
set up a program called the Operation Warp Speed. It offered large amounts of
money to companies that can produce a vaccine by a certain deadline. People
worry that the drug companies might be pressured to deliver the vaccines
according to the demand of the operation, affecting how they conduct the
clinical trials. Normally, before a vaccine can be distributed to the public,
it is required to go through multiple tests and trials. These can take many years
to ensure the vaccine's safety. When the trials are rushed, there are great
possibilities that there might be mistakes or inaccuracies.
Vaccine
development usually ranges from 4 to 10 years. So when drug companies announced
successful Covid-19 vaccine in less than a year, I was really sceptical. There
must have been some mistakes. After further research, I discovered that one of
the reasons researchers were able to speed up the vaccine development was due
to past researches of SARS and MERS. Both viruses are a type of coronavirus. In
addition to that, the massive amount of funding made it possible for drug
companies to run parallel tests. These 2 combined are the ultimate formula in
the race to fight Covid-19.
As countries around the world are rolling out the vaccines, all
eyes are watching closely for the effect and result of the vaccination. I am
fairly certain that drug companies would not be so careless and risk their
reputation in creating vaccines that are not safe for the public. Therefore, I
think that when the vaccine is available for me, I will choose to be
vaccinated. At least I would have done my duty as a responsible citizen and contributed
to returning the world back on track.
