"This is the fastest vaccine to be developed in history."
"This is the fastest vaccine to be developed in history."
At 6:30 GMT Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2020, or 2:30 p.m., Tuesday, in Manila, British shopkeeper and 90-year-old grandmother Margaret Keenan became the first person in the west to receive the commercial variety of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. It was administered by nurse May Parsons, a British-Filipino citizen. It was a historic moment.
In less than a year when the world came to learn about the coronavirus SARS-2 on Dec. 31, 2019, the western world has produced a viable vaccine. It is the fastest vaccine to be developed, in history. For Filipinos, it is a bittersweet moment. A Filipino makes history injecting the vaccine into its first user, outside of clinical trials.
In Manila, 10,700 kms away from London, nurse May’s 110 million kababayans in the Philippines are wondering just when they will get their own vaccine against COVID-19—if ever. May’s home country will be probably the last to get the vaccine in substantial quantities in Asia. UK first in the west. PH last in the east.
The SARS-CoV-2 or COVID-19 pandemic is the greatest and gravest global health crisis in the last 100 years. It has triggered the greatest global economic crisis in the last 100 years.
As of Dec. 9, 2020, COVID-19 has caused more than 68.7 million cases and claimed the lives of 1.566 million people worldwide. About 600,000 cases erupt daily, worldwide; 12,000 die from COVID, daily, worldwide.
In the US, over 15.59 million cases have been reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), with 293,500 total deaths so far.
The World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus a pandemic on March 11, 2020. Vaccines are critical to mitigate the pandemic, says the US Centers for Disease Control, and to prevent future outbreaks.
Symptoms of COVID-19 vary. At least one of every five victims is asymptomatic or has a mild disease. Some cases progress to severe respiratory tract disease including pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), leading to multi-organ failure and death.
The WHO reports that some 200 COVID-19 vaccines are in development around the world. Each candidate vaccine promises to protect people from the deadly coronavirus and allow them to go back to work and school. Nearly a dozen are starting or nearing the final stage of testing.
The U.K. on Dec. 3, 2020 became the first Western country to approve a vaccine for emergency use and on Dec. 8, became the first in the western world to inject the vaccine. It is a shining moment for the UK, and indeed for the world, debilitated by the worst health crisis in a century.
The U.S. and the European Union are expected to approve one or more vaccines this December. Chinese and Russian authorities, meanwhile, have already approved some state-developed vaccines for “emergency use,” although trials are still under way, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Modernaʼs COVID-19 shot performed comparably in its late-stage trial to the vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech. Both were more than 94-percent effective and generally safe, the companies reported. That isnʼt too surprising given the vaccines rely on the same gene-based technology.
AstraZenecaʼs vaccine, which uses an older, more proven technology, appeared to be less effective; it had a 62-percent effectiveness rate among volunteers who got two full doses, and a 90-percent rate among a small group who got a half-dose followed by the full dose.
Yet health authorities have said a 62-percent efficacy would be enough to build up the herd immunity communities need to fight the virus.
AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford said their vaccine didnʼt appear to have serious side effects, either.
One problem with the AstraZeneca vaccine. Only 12 percent of its trial group were in the age bracket 55 to 70; only 4 percent were 70 and above. AstraZeneca needs to have a larger trial group, 30,000 people, before it could get US FDA approval.
The two-dose vaccine Pfizer-BioNTech, according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) report on Dec. 8, “provided benefits even after just the first injection—cutting the risk of getting COVID-19 by about half. The vaccine was found to be 95-percent effective after the second dose, three weeks later.”
The Pfizer vaccine could reduce the risk of confirmed severe disease after the first dose, an important finding as some health experts were concerned that COVID-19 vaccines would protect against only mild to moderate disease.
“Side effects were common, however, especially in younger people, the analysis found. The most common complaint was fatigue, followed by muscle pain and joint pain,” reported the Wall Street Journal, citing the FDA report. “Severe ‘adverse reactions’ were rare, most frequent after the second dose, and generally less frequent in older adults greater than 55 years of age.”
For its part, the United Arab Emirates became the first government outside China to approve the vaccine, CoronaVac, of Beijing-based Sinopharm for inoculation. CoronaVac is said to be 86 percent effective.
Sinopharm’s 86 percent efficacy puts its vaccine behind Moderna’s 94.5 percent and Pfizer-BioNTech’s 95 percent, but ahead of AstraZeneca’s 70 percent.
Sinopharm has two vaccines. They are probably by now the most widely used, with one million having received doses, but without passing through clinical trials.
Unlike Pfizer’s vaccine, Sinopharm’s vaccines can be stored in regular refrigerators, making them a more attractive option for developing countries like the Philippines. Morocco has ordered 10 million doses of Sinopharm vaccines.
Manila is now eyeing Chinese vaccines for a rollout in the second quarter of 2021 in the Philippines.
Sinopharm vaccines are in Phase 3 testing in Egypt, Bahrain, Peru and Argentina.
A second Chinese company, Sinovac, is testing its coronavirus vaccine in late-stage trials in Brazil, Indonesia and Turkey.
A third Chinese company, CanSino is developing another vaccine, in tandem with a military research institute. CanSino has been approved for emergency use by China’s military.
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