HEALTH CARE
Dr . Angela Haczku , a respiratory immunologist and associate dean for translational research at the UC Davis School of Medicine , oversees the university ’ s development of research projects related to COVID-19 . difficult process . During the highly politicized race for a vaccine before the November U . S . presidential election , scientists warned that not only was a vaccine unlikely in that short time frame , but also that anything rushed through approvals might not be safe . That left researchers like Haczku , Iyer and Hartigan-O ’ Connor to not only work around the clock as part of Operation Warp Speed — the White House initiative launched in May to “ accelerate the testing , supply , development , and distribution of safe and effective vaccines , therapeutics , and diagnostics to counter COVID-19 by January 2021 ” — but also to manage expectations .
“ We have plenty of tools to design a vaccine , but on a time scale that ’ s frustrating to people ,” says Hartigan- O ’ Connor . “ The process of sorting through those tools is a lengthy one . There are two pieces to a ( successful ) vaccine : It has to create an immune response , and the response has to be effective . We know we can create the response , but we don ’ t know if that will be enough . We have to follow ( test subjects ) for a minimum of two years to rule out deleterious effects and see how long the vaccine lasts .”
Hartigan-O ’ Connor says that many of the vaccines currently being tested in humans and nearing final approval by the FDA may work , but that they ’ re a “ simpler ” form of vaccine , meaning they rely on less sophisticated mechanisms ( like an inactivated virus ) and therefore don ’ t provide long-term protection without booster shots . Though more highly optimized vaccines take longer to develop due to their more complex design , they also often provoke a more intense immune response that lasts longer .
One of the most promising vaccine candidates already in human clinical trials is being tested in part at UC Davis . Aug . 12 , UC Davis Health announced that it had entered into a partnership with Pfizer and BioNTech , a German biotechnology company whose lead mRNA vaccine researcher is a longtime colleague of Haczku ’ s , to participate in a 30,000-person global study . UC Davis was one of 120 sites across the country and one of two in the Sacramento area ( along with Kaiser Permanente ) selected for the trial due to its ethnically diverse population and high prevalence of infection . Approximately 200 people are participating in the UC Davis study .
“ This is a huge undertaking , even though we ’ re only a very small cog in the machinery ,” says Haczku , who started administering first-round injections Aug . 20 and finished at the end of September . “ An mRNA vaccine ( like this one ) has not been used in human history to combat infectious disease . It ’ s ( a ) historic first .”
Following this first round of injections , participants returned to UC Davis after 21 days for a booster , which will then be followed by six-month , one-year and two-year follow-ups to track how long the immunity lasts and if the vaccine has actually prevent-
34 comstocksmag . com | December 2020