Why does WHO say it takes 18 months to get the vaccine for corona virus?

Last week, the World Health Organization said it may take 18 months to get the corona virus vaccine for widespread use.

Let's find out why it takes so much time, despite the worldwide effort to produce the vaccine.

Since the first half of January, China has fully shared information about the RNA sequence of this virus, from which the whole world began to research and develop vaccines.

In late January, the virus was first successfully cultivated outside of China, at the Doherty Institute in Melbourne, Australia. This is an important step, because for the first time researchers in other countries have access to a live virus sample. Thanks to this, they began to understand the characteristics of the virus, which is another important step in the development of vaccines.

First, we must understand the characteristics and behavior of the virus on the host's body.

So far, it takes 2 to 5 years to develop vaccines. But with global efforts, as well as lessons from previous corona vaccines development, the researchers hope to develop this vaccine in a much shorter time.

Why do we need cooperation?

Not only one research institute has the capacity and equipment to develop a vaccine.

First , we must understand the characteristics and behavior of viruses on the host (human).

Next , we have to prove that the test vaccine is safe and that it can create the right immunity of the body, not the wrong one that harms the body. Only then can the pre-clinical experiments be started on animals.

Vaccines that have been pre-clinical tested successfully will be tested by other institutions capable of testing the human body.

It will be decided by who, where to proceed. In general, it is best to test these vaccines at the site of an outbreak.

Finally, if a vaccine is considered safe and effective, it will need to be legally approved. Then there must be a cost effective way to produce the vaccine so that it is ready to be distributed.

Each of the aforementioned steps of the vaccine development process presents many challenges.

Some challenges

In order to determine the characteristics of the virus, then the preclinical test vaccine trial needs to first isolate the virus, followed by cultivating a larger amount of virus so that the scientists have enough virus for further research. . This includes virus culture in a laboratory under security and aseptic conditions.

The next challenge is to develop and validate virus biological samples. This will be an animal model that tells us how corona virus works in the human body.

From the results of the SARS outbreak in 2003, which is a 'family' of the new corona virus, the scientists have a lot of experience to study this virus. For SARS, the researchers used the ferret-model animal as the experimental biological model. The two new strains of SARS and corona virus have the same gene codes of about 80-90%, so it is possible to use the results of the ferret experiment as a starting point for further study of the new corona virus.

If the virus mutates, what will the vaccine do?

It is very likely that the new corona virus will evolve (mutate). As a virus in an animal's body, it can mutate when it spreads from the first animal host to the next host, then spreads from animals to humans.

Initially it was not spread from person to person, but now it is spread from person to person very quickly. Spread from person to person demonstrates that the virus is undergoing a stable step, which is part of the mutation process.

Mutation processes can still change in different parts of the world for a variety of reasons. One of the reasons is population density. Population density affects the number of people infected with the virus and the number of chances for the virus to mutate. Exposure to other corona viruses may also affect the ability of the population to infect, resulting in the emergence of different strains of the virus, similar to the condition of seasonal flu.

Therefore, it is essential that we continue to work with the latest versions of the virus to have the greatest chance that the vaccine will work .

All this work needs to be done under strict quality and safety conditions to ensure global legal requirements and safety for researchers as well as the community.

Challenges ahead

Another challenge is producing proteins from viruses to develop experimental vaccines. These proteins are specifically designed to enable an immune response when activated, allowing a person's immune system to fight the next time the virus is attacked.

Fortunately, recent scientific advances in understanding the viral proteins as well as their structure and function have helped the vaccine research and development work take place globally at a rapid pace. significantly fast.

Developing a vaccine is a huge task, not an overnight result. But if everything goes according to plan, this time we will shorten the time compared to before.

We have learned a lot from the SARS outbreak, and the knowledge of the global scientific community gained from the SARS vaccine development effort has given us a good start to developing the vaccine. Please prevent new corona virus this time.

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