The Covid-19 Vaccine

 

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.