Most Popular Choices
Share on Facebook 39 Printer Friendly Page More Sharing
Sci Tech    H2'ed 1/26/21

Get the vaccine shot but do not throw away the mask to fight COVID-19

By       (Page 1 of 4 pages)   6 comments
Follow Me on Twitter     Message Citizen News Service - CNS
Become a Fan
  (2 fans)
Shobha Shukla - CNS

All prevention measures should be leveraged for breaking the chain of COVID-19 transmission
All prevention measures should be leveraged for breaking the chain of COVID-19 transmission
(Image by CNS)
  Details   DMCA

The message from all scientists is very loud and clear that vaccines alone will not be able to stem the tide of the COVID-19 pandemic. Even after getting vaccinated, we will have to continue to wear masks, maintain physical distancing, wash hands frequently and avoid congregated settings, to break the chain of transmission of the virus.

Some leading scientists such as Dr Anthony Fauci, Director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; Dr Helen Rees, founder and Executive Director of Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute, University of Witwatersrand, South Africa; Dr Robin Shattock, Professor of mucosal infection and immunity, Imperial College London; and Dr Sarah Schlesinger, Associate Professor of Clinical Investigation, Rockefeller University, New York, interacted with a select group of global health writers including me, ahead of HIV Research for Prevention (HIVR4P) International Conference, to be held (virtually) over the last week of January and the first week of February.

The year 2020 has been a tumultuous one indeed. The SARS-CoV-2 virus (commonly known as one of the forms of coronavirus that is causing the COVID-19 epidemic) ripped the world apart in a very short time, spreading the deadly COVID-19 pandemic very rapidly. The first clinical cases were recognized in Wuhan, China, in December 2019 and till to-date it has infected almost 100 million people globally and killed more than 2 million.

While 2020 will remain etched in history as a catastrophic year, it will also be remembered as a year of scientific and medical breakthroughs - identifying the virus, sequencing the virus, making vaccines to combat it, at breakneck speed, and also figuring out what works medically - both in terms of treatments and in terms of prevention.

vaccines in our arsenal

It is nothing short of a miracle that in less than one year the biomedical community has fast tracked the development of several vaccines. As of now there are at least 3 injectable vaccines - by Oxford-AstraZeneca, Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna - that have got regulatory approval for their use by many countries to combat the pandemic. The Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines use a new, first-ever technology that packages messenger RNA (mRNA) inside tiny fat droplets to instruct human cells to make the spike protein jutting out from the coronavirus's surface. The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine uses an accentuated (harmless and weakened) version of a virus that causes the common cold in chimpanzees and packages the genetic instructions in the shell of this adenovirus. This virus has been genetically altered with a gene for a coronavirus protein to provoke the body's immune reaction.

Efficacy of Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines is around 95%. While efficacy of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is slightly lower at around 70%, it is cheaper and easier to store than the other two vaccines.

efficacy versus effectiveness of a vaccine

Next Page  1  |  2  |  3  |  4

(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).

Rate It | View Ratings

Citizen News Service - CNS Social Media Pages: Facebook page url on login Profile not filled in       Twitter page url on login Profile not filled in       Linkedin page url on login Profile not filled in       Instagram page url on login Profile not filled in

Citizen News Service (CNS) specializes in in-depth and rights-based, health and science journalism. For more information, please contact: www.citizen-news.org or @cns_health or www.facebook.com/cns.page
Go To Commenting
The views expressed herein are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
Writers Guidelines

 
Contact AuthorContact Author Contact EditorContact Editor Author PageView Authors' Articles
Support OpEdNews

OpEdNews depends upon can't survive without your help.

If you value this article and the work of OpEdNews, please either Donate or Purchase a premium membership.

STAY IN THE KNOW
If you've enjoyed this, sign up for our daily or weekly newsletter to get lots of great progressive content.
Daily Weekly     OpEd News Newsletter
Name
Email
   (Opens new browser window)
 

Most Popular Articles by this Author:     (View All Most Popular Articles by this Author)

Management of respiratory diseases beyond drugs: Pulmonary Rehabilitation

Oxygen therapy is like a prescription drug: Use it rationally

New funding boosts research for controlling TB, malaria, dengue and leishmaniasis

Progress made but work remains on firewalling health policy from tobacco industry

Youth Changemakers at the forefront of advocating for sexual health and rights

A bouquet of novel compounds: New treatment options for HIV

To View Comments or Join the Conversation:

Tell A Friend