| It's hard to believe vaccines were once considered a backwater in the pharmaceutical industry. The shots—and they were almost always shots—were hard to develop, tricky to manufacture and not very profitable. Fortunately, a handful of drugmakers, startups and academic researchers continued investigating innovative ways to streamline the development process. The world is now reaping the benefits, with more than a dozen vaccines launched to help protect people from Covid-19, all within a year of beginning work on the inoculations. The blistering pace of progress made household names of companies like Moderna and BioNTech, which offered hope for ending the pandemic. Already, health care workers have administered 658 million doses in the four months they've been available. But the shots and the technologies they represent currently aren't nearly enough to ensure the safety of the world's 7.7 billion people. What's needed is more: more doses and more approaches, including options for people who are afraid of needles, who are living in areas where novel variants are rampant or who are particularly vulnerable to side effects or complications. Faster manufacturing, easier distribution and fewer injections are also needed.  Medical staff workers prepare syringes with doses of Covid-19 vaccine. Photographer: JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP Fortunately, a raft of second-generation immunizations are nearing the market. Of the more than 250 vaccine candidates in development, 82 are being studied in people. Several are now reaching the market, or will in the coming weeks. They include more vaccines that require just a single injection, allowing users to reap the advantages of a "one-and-done" method that gets them to full immunity without a return visit—and the wait time of up to a month. Others that follow traditional vaccine approaches, injecting a portion of the virus's spike protein to spur an immune response, are nearing the market. Because the technology is so established, there is plenty of capacity in the system, which are also easier and cheaper to make. Other approaches include inhaled vaccines, which require no needles, and multivalent approach that would simultaneously protect against more than one strain of SARS-CoV-2, the disease-causing virus. In some cases, the shots may be combined with influenza vaccines, providing twice the protection. One of the few bright spots in the Covid-19 pandemic is the scientific prowess that delivered vaccines when the world was most in need. Now the vaccine 2.0 lineup is starting to roll out, hopefully getting humanity over the finish line when it comes to putting the outbreak behind us and positioning us well for when the next novel virus appears.—Michelle Fay Cortez | 
Sitaram Panchal died of cancer at 54 New Delhi: After Inder Kumar’s sudden death, Bollywood industry got another shock this mornin...
Post a Comment