'Quick vaccine for COVID-19 impossible'

Medical experts say the vaccine for COVID19 is far from reality as the shortest duration taken for any vaccine to be developed was for mumps which took nearly four years of research On an average vaccines take five to 10 years to develop and in many cases even more years They feel the development of a vaccine to tackle a new virus such as the novel Coronavirus in a short time is humanly impossibleDr Subhash Hira Professor of Global Health at the University of Washington and former Technical Advisor to Ministry of Health New Delhi was invited to attend the virtual Global COVID19 Research amp Innovation Forum July 12 held in Geneva while Dr Tedros Adhanom Director General WHO was in attendance This meeting did a critical review of research findings so far and their impact on the response to COVID19 and progress of several vaccine studies underway in the worldDr Wiqar Shaikh Dr Ketan Vagholkar and Dr Subhash HiraAsked about chances of a COVID19 vaccine ready for use by midAugust 2020 Professor Hira said Such short timelines are difficult to meet in the field of biology but they certainly show a positive connotation of national determination towards selfreliance in the fields of science and healthWill There Be A Coronavirus Vaccine By August 15Dr Hira added that so far there were some precedences in science whereby once vaccine efficacy is established the world does not wait for findings about immunity and neutralising antibodies A classical case he cited was of the Hepatitis B vaccine that was introduced for human use in 1986 after 20 years of research wherein immunity markers remained unresolved It took another 20 years after the use of the Hepatitis B vaccine that its neutralising antibodies and immunity questions became evident to the scientific worldOnly solution is herd immunityDr Wiqar Shaikh senior asthma and allergy specialist added It is unrealistic to expect a fullly effective vaccine for at least two years or may be never at all In the absence of a vaccine for COVID19 the only solution for this pandemic is the development of herd immunity In the history of medicine no vaccine has been developed in less than five years and it generally may require 10 years or more of research The record for the fastest developed vaccine is the mumps vaccine which was developed in a record four years between 1963 and 1967Interestingly enough reports reveal that the Oxford vaccine for COVID19 has failed the preclinical test in animals When swabs of monkeys were tested for presence of SARSCov2 there was no significant difference between vaccinated and unvaccinated monkeys If therefore the vaccine works the same way in humans vaccinated individuals will continue to be active spreaders of COVID19Until July 2020 218 vaccine candidates globally were in various stages of development Of these only 24 are undergoing clinical trial Dr Shaikh addedHasty development is dangerousThe current pandemic and the need to stop it should not lead to hasty development of a vaccine without adequate positive scientific studies Commercial and economic greed cannot override established scientific principles Cutting corners and attempting to drastically shorten the stages of vaccine development could be dangerous to human life A classic example is the dengue vaccine Dengvaxia In November 2017 a vaccine against dengue was announced in the Philippines After the vaccine was administered to children during human trials over 600 of them died because of complications from it While the vaccine had taken 20 years to be developed and cost 15 billion the Dengvaxia disaster could be repeated by a halfbaked hastily developed vaccine for SARSCov2 Dr Shaikh saidHe said it was shocking that despite the failed animal experiment the Oxford vaccine was allowed to proceed to the stage of human trials How is it possible that almost all vaccine makers claim they will be developing one within this year The lead researcher Sarah Gilbert of the Oxford vaccine has admitted in the media that its trials are expected to continue till August 2021 The WHO has clearly mentioned that one cannot expect a COVID19 vaccine before 2021 Dr Shaikh addedHe further stated Despite several years of research we have not yet developed a safe and effective vaccine for other viruses like dengue SARSCov1 MERS Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Swine Flu H1N1 Ebola Virus HIV AIDS which itself explain that it is humanly impossible to have a vaccine for SARSCov2 within six months of the pandemic outbreakAn effective vaccine for SARSCov2 should stimulate the immune system to first produce antibodies and more importantly to produce memory T cells they have immunological memory exactly like a person who is exposed to the disease After getting vaccinated an individual should develop complete immunity to SARSCov2 without ever contracting the diseaseDr Ketan Vagholkar professor of surgery at D Y Patil Medical College said The initial result of development of a vaccine for SARSCoV2 is undoubtedly the silver lining of the cloud However it is unnecessarily developing euphoria amongst the various countries affected by COVID19 Elaborate trials need to be further conducted in order to assess efficacy side effects and duration of protection offered to the recipientDr Vagholkar added This will take at least a year even more for the final results to be declared until then basic principles of selfprotection and early reporting to hospitals in case of symptomatic patients continues to be the mainstay of treatment All affected nations are looking eagerly forward to this vaccine Therefore speculating any dates before a year would be unwise and would surely disappoint the general populationStages of vaccine developmentAccording to Dr Wiqar Shaikh There are six stages of vaccine development ndash exploratory stage preclinical stage stage of clinical development regulatory review and approval manufacturing of vaccine and quality control Medical science is mainly involved in the first three stages Stage 1 requires basic laboratory research for the proposed candidate vaccine which often lasts for two to four years In this stage scientists identify natural or synthetic antigens which might help prevent or treat a diseaseThe second stage of preclinical stage involves animal testing to assess the safety of the vaccine and its ability to induce a robust immune response But the majority of candidate vaccines do not progress beyond this stage because they fail to produce the desired immune response Preclinical stage often last for one to two yearsThe third stage of clinical development has three phases phase 1 involves small groups of people around 20 to 30 individuals phase two involve large groups of individuals in several hundreds and phase three involves thousands of individuals Development of vaccines requires successful phase 1 to phase 2 progress and successful phase 2 to phase 3 progressThe goals of these phases are to determine the type and extent of the immune response provoked by the vaccine its safety in human beings dose schedule of administration and method of delivery Only when all these stages and phases of vaccine development are successful that we could progress to licensing and manufacturing of the vaccine along with quality control explained Dr ShaikhCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and a complete guide from food to things to do and events across Mumbai Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates MidDay is now on Telegram Click here to join our channel middayinfomedialtd and stay updated with the latest news