It has now been more than a year since the first detection of an outbreak in Wuhan , China was reported . The place
wherein a viral infection caused by what was then known as the novel coronavirus — now SARS-CoV-2 ( the virus that causes COVID-19 ) — was first spreading , and has now
eventually become a global pandemic . Medical experts and scientists across the world are making efforts to curb the
COVID-19 pandemic through various means , one of the most important being the development of vaccines . On average , it takes 10-15 years for vaccines to become fully developed . But
due to modern development efforts and international pressure on the pharmaceutical sector , several expedited
attempts were made to create a safe & effective COVID-19 vaccine .
As of March 22 , 2021 , 13 vaccines from different companies have been approved by countries around
the world , with some having been already made available to the public . Of these vaccines made to the public , around 447 million doses were administered in 133 countries around the
world , a mere 2.9 % of the global population . With all the good news of vaccines being distributed , there is also news of
the virus evolving and mutating into various variants , which may drastically influence the course of the COVID-19 pandemic .
This raises the question : will the vaccines work against these new variants ?
The answer to this question relies on
two factors : ( 1 ) the approach of vaccine makers in the postdevelopment phase of their vaccines to oppose new variants ,
and ( 2 ) the decisiveness of health officials in the use of vaccines . In the case of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine , when Professor Andrew Pollard , a scientist studying vaccine development and Director of the Oxford Vaccine Group , was asked during an interview on The BMJ about how
practical it would be to redesign a vaccine , he said that viral vector vaccines such that of AstraZeneca , along with other mRNA vaccines such as Pfizer and Moderna , require only to
“... synthesize a new bit of DNA — and then insert that into the new vaccine .”
Professor Pollard then proceeded to explain that “... there ’ s a bit of work to do to manufacture the
new vaccine — but the same processes would be used ,” meaning that the modified vaccines would go under testing
once again “... to show that you can still generate [ an ] immune response ,” which will then have to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration agencies of the different countries interested in buying the newly modified vaccines .
As of now , we still do not have a definite answer to the question as to whether or not the
already approved vaccines work against the new emerging variants , since medical trials evaluating the efficacy of preapproved vaccines against the new COVID-19 variants only began midway through March 2021 .
We can still have our hopes high , because there is assurance that our medical experts will live
up to their promise of continued research and expedited development of newly modified vaccines to keep up with the evolving COVID-19 variants .
The race of vaccines and variants has not yet come to a final stop , and it will continue to go on for as long as this pandemic endures .
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