COVID Vaccines and What We Know So Far

A vaccine is a biological cocktail that is designed to give you immunity to a certain disease. It usually contains a key ingredient that mimics the disease-causing organism. It uses a weakened or dead form of the disease itself to develop immunity within the vaccine recipient’s body.

When will a COVID vaccine be available?

There are multiple countries, labs, and organizations around the world working on a vaccine. Each one is at a different state. The WHO lists the known projects working on the vaccine here.

The Four Types of Vaccines

When you hear of a vaccine, you don’t really think about its origin story. But the truth is that every vaccine is unique.

• Inactivated or weakened virus vaccines, as mentioned above, use an inactive/dead/weakened form of COVID-19 virus.
• Protein-based vaccines use innocuous fragments of proteins to recreate the COVID-19 virus that would incite the immune system to activate a fighting response.
• Viral vector vaccines use genetic engineering so that the recipient would not feel the effects of the disease, but will be able to put the immune system to work.
• RNA and DNA vaccines use DNA or RNA that create proteins which generate a response from the immune system.

After learning the above, it would make sense for you to choose the right vaccine for the right patient. Ultimately, it’s the testing that decides which vaccine will hail supreme. Along with the building of a successful vaccine, the secondary concern is ensuring that it reaches the masses

How Long Until You Can Use a COVID-19 Vaccine?

The World Health Organization already knows that vaccines prevent millions of deaths every year, worldwide. And certainly COVID-19 has been one of the deadliest viruses in the new millennium.

But how long until the vaccine is in your country?

The vaccine by Pfizer has been approved for use in the United Kingdom as of Dec 2nd 2020. Shipments are on their way even today. The United States and Europe are expected to be next.

Russia’s Sputnik V is a protein based virus similar to the one being created by AstraZeneca-University of Oxford’s vaccine. Several countries have ordered this version as well.

Pricing will also determine who uses the vaccine, while all the vaccines are in limited testing – to roll it out further means testing modes of delivery.

But, one vaccine or multiple vaccines may be available shortly in the United States, as well. Stay tuned to the WHO website and your local government’s health advisory notices to get the latest vaccine updates.