VACCINATION OF THE PANDEMIC.
One year on with over 93 million cases and more than 2 million deaths, the covid 19 pandemic has swept all over mankind causing tremendous havoc. But after 12 months of fighting the pandemic, there is light at the end of the tunnel, this time in the form of the vaccine. Unlike the usual buzz and fan fair that’s associated with vaccine production especially at the height of a disease outbreak, the covid 19 vaccine has stirred much heated debate among society, leaving an infected world divided. From some medical scholars, religious leaders, politicians and the business fraternity, everyone has an opinion about the vaccine. In most cases its driven by facts, and sometimes unfortunately also self interests, and ignorance. Nevertheless with a new contagious strain emerging and new outbreaks in China ,U.K and enormous casualty figurers in U.S, a medical breakthrough is surely needed .
VACCINATION PRODUCTION AND ROLLOUT.
When china submitted the structure and genotype of the novel coronavirus to World Health Organization, scientists all over the world embarked on the process of vaccine development. Scientists then decided to use the messenger RNA concept for the covid 19 vaccine. Messenger RNA vaccination research is however not completely new, as it was tried during research on vaccines for zika, flu and rabies. The mRNA vaccine unlikeprevious vaccines doesn’t work on the concept of introduction of a weakened or dead virus into the body in order to train the immune system to fight and detect the virus, but uses the mechanism where the virus is introduced into the nucleus of the cell and gives it instructions in its DNA to make the spike protein that is similar to the covid 19 virus. This enables the cell to detect the COVID-19 virus and thus trigger an immune response towards the virus. Of the 50 covid 19 vaccines in development, the major ones so far in rollout such as moderna, Pfizer/BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine use this technology. The mRNA vaccine technology has lessened the normal vaccine production from about 10 years to about 8 months, an impressive feet in science but a highly contiguousdevelopment among some sections in society. Russia’s sputnik V vaccine released in august was the worlds first registered covid19 vaccine with the kremlin saying its 93% effective , though it wasn’t approved by W.H O. and highly critized by the west .
The World Health Organization set up the COVAX vaccineinitiative where it plans to distribute 2 billion vaccine doses by the end of 2021, with the aim of making it accessible to developing countries. All countries signed up to this initiative except U.S that had formerly withdrawn from the organizationover accusations by Washington for negligence in handling the pandemic. Nevertheless, the trump administration organized an initiative called OPERATION WASP SPEED in an effort to speed up research , production and rollout of the covid 19 vaccine in America. The moderna vaccine is a beneficiary of the initiative. There are fears among leaders and civil society organizations in developing countries especially in sub SaharanAfrica, that western countries will hoard the vaccine stockpile and thus deprive them of the vaccine. This will not only delay the delivery of the vaccine in the third world but also increase their cost, to the dismay of many people there. Some estimates state that sub Saharan Africa shall be fully vaccinated by mid 2023, three years after the onset of the pandemic.
China has emerged as the major global player in the fight of the pandemic especially with the withdrawal of U.S from W.H.O ,with president XI stating that the Chinese vaccines shall be a public good and priority shall be given to developing countries. China has developed so far two vaccines using the traditional vaccine technology of introducing a weakened virus into the body to trigger an immune response. China’s SINOVAC and SINOPHARM vaccines are the country’s leading vaccines with the target production being at 2 billion doses by the end of 2021. Turkey, Indonesia, Seychelles ,Serbia ,Sao Paolo city in Brazil have already embarked on vaccinations using the Chinese vaccines. The country that produces the most effective vaccine will have both huge diplomatic and medical power worldwide and that’s something authorities in Beijing have understood.
Turkeys leader Erdogan receives China’s sinovac vaccine .
VACCINATION IN AFRICA, RELIGION AND THE CRITICS.
At the height of the pandemic, many western scholars predicted the continent to be the worst hit by the pandemic due to factors such as poor health facilities, political instability or in some cases just a racial bias. Nevertheless, the continent has the fewest deaths and cases on the planet compared to the other places ,despite the earlier stated rhetoric and the new contiguous strain that emerged from south Africa. In May 2020, Madagascar introduced a new covid 19 natural herbal remedy and promoted it as a covid 19 treatment. Some African nations such as Tanzania purchased the remedy and it was hailed as a truly pan African solution to the pandemic, despite the fact it wasn’t approved by the world health organization. Currently, many African countries have made orders for the covid 19 vaccines such as moderna ,Oxford Astrazeneca and the Chinese vaccines that are easy to store as they require the standard refrigeration temperature. The African union through its medical front – the African center for disease control (African CDC) set up the African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team to work and secure vaccines for the continent.
The covid 19 vaccine has become one of the most debated medical drugs in some sections of the public. Critics state the quick release of the vaccine especially those using mRNAtechnology is suspicious as on average it takes about 8 to 15 years for vaccine approval , not forgetting the fact that for some vaccines, the stage 3 and 4 clinical trial data isn’t conclusive. The World Health Organization hasn’t formally endorsed any vaccine but in the face of increasing nationalism and distrust among nations towards the organization , their delayed approval seems to carry no weight. Some sources cite the side effects of the vaccine such as headaches, fever, fainting etc by some people who received the vaccine as a point to disregard it.
Religious leaders especially evangelical Christians are one of the greatest critics of the vaccine. According to religious leaders, the vaccine is a method by the anti christ organization to inoculate the world with genes that will alter the DNA of mankind. The fact that in the near future vaccination against the pandemic shall be a requirement for an individual to travel, access services strikes a similar resemblance with the mark of the devil written in the book of revelation. Nevertheless , the Vatican or the orthodox church hasn’t commented on the vaccines based on the scriptures but, the fears about its links to the anti christ are strike a chord with some sections of Christianity.
Conclusion,
With the pandemic still ongoing, this time with a more contagious variant, there is need to fight it head on before it affects many more lives. Many vaccines are in development and those that are already out have been rolled out , but efforts have to be made to also cater for the developing countries with a more comprehensive research on its development and side effects.
Wriiten by Rugaba John Paul.