The vaccine is here
So Britain is going to be the first major testing ground for what is being billed as the world’s first Covid-19 vaccine — a collaborative work of the US-based Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech. However, the political race to be the first to roll out the much-anticipated anti-Covid shots has led to China and Russia offering different vaccinations to their citizens ahead of late-stage testing. According to the Russian health minister, 100,000 high-risk people have already been vaccinated in Russia as part of a mass vaccination programme rolled out for Sputnik V, the “first registered vaccine against Covid-19”. Apart from that, the US and the European Union also are vetting the Pfizer shot along with a similar vaccine made by competitor Moderna Inc.
The UK, meanwhile, is all set to start vaccinating its people as early as next week in a major step towards taming the deadly pandemic. The kingdom has ordered 40 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine; and since two vaccine shots three week apart are required for one person to develop immunity, it means the first order will cater to 20 million people. Even though early results suggest the vaccine is 95% effective at preventing mild to severe Covid-19 disease, there are questions whose answers will only be available with time, such as: Will the Pfizer-BioNTech shots protect against people spreading the coronavirus without showing any symptoms? How long will the protection last? How will the vaccine affect pregnant women as well as children under 12 on whom the vaccine has not been tested.
There are other challenges too, like in the shape of anti-vaxxers. Doctors are already confronting skeptics. According to media reports, resistance is also coming from people in the developed world — let alone those in the developing countries where resistance to vaccines among some groups is no news. Conspiracy theories, like the vaccination being a sinister DNA altering exercise, also abound. So here we go!
Published in The Express Tribune, December 4th, 2020.
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