A potential vaccine
The wait for the development of an effective vaccine for Covid-19 could finally be over. Developers — Pfizer and BioNTech — have been able to formulate a vaccine that can prevent 90% of people from contracting the deadly virus. Having been tested on 43,500 people across six different countries without any safety concerns, scientists remain highly optimistic because no other vaccine has given such positive results in a short period of time. Many have gone as far as to say that life could be back to normal by spring.
The data provided by developers indicates that two doses, three weeks apart are needed and 90% protection is achieved 7 days after the second dose. Analysts still claim that the overall efficiency of the virus may change as these results were based on the first 94 volunteers to develop Covid-19. Further testing is yet to reveal how long the immunity from the vaccine will last. But if this vaccine does all phases of testing, it will be a “much-needed breakthrough to help bring an end to this global health crisis”.
However, a major hurdle will still remain: who will get the vaccine? Being only able to supply 50 million doses — 10 million of which have been booked by the UK — by the end of the year, countries will struggle to secure the vaccine for themselves. WHO Director General has asserted time and again that even when a vaccine is developed, countries need to remain sane so as to prevent the unequal distribution of the vaccine, as only First World countries have the monetary capability of securing high number of doses from private pharmaceuticals. This would mean that poor countries would have less of a chance to fight the virus. The situation could also further exacerbate the pressing issue of severe inequality out of control.
Keeping in mind the fact that resurging waves seem to be even deadlier, Pakistan needs to be on the forefront of acquiring this vaccine from the very start. Our healthcare and economy is not in the best shape to sustain multiple blows from the pandemic. Resilient measures are necessary.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 11th, 2020.
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