Time, of the Essence in SARS-CoV-2 Inoculation

"I am actually quite optimistic that we will have a vaccine and it will be distributed to the whole world as quickly as possible in 2021, perhaps bleeding into 2022."                           "I don't know which of the vaccine candidates undergoing clinical testing in humans will ultimately be shown to be safe and effective. But the encouraging news is that all of the vaccine candidates that have entered trials in humans so far are safe and have elicited high levels of antibodies against COVID-19."                                                                              "The COVID-19 story illustrates the tremendous capacity and speed of science in the 21st century and the power of international collaboration."                             "We have got what we wanted -- a diverse portfolio of vaccines based on different platforms. We have now signed those deals and there are more coming."              "This disease is not one that anybody wants to get. I think we have underestimated the severity of the disease and the lingering complications for many people. It is not like the flu. This is a serious disease."                                                                          Alan Bernstein, scientist, member, Canadian COVID-19 task force, President & CEO of CIFAR (Canadian Institute for Advanced Research) 

Literally, dozens of prospective vaccines to inoculate the world community against the dread novel coronavirus are on tap in the near future to complete essential clinical trials, clear authorization by government health agencies to proceed with manufacturing, and distribute their products world wide. Many countries, anxious to be able to resume normalcy, have signed contracts with the world's leading pharmaceutical companies for hundreds of millions of doses of the COVID-19 vaccines. Without an effective vaccine no country is immune from the virus's ongoing predation and death toll.

So great is the urgency to get on with producing, distributing and inoculating the greater world public that even before the authorization to proceed with production gained by approval, many pharmaceutical companies producing vaccines have begun anticipatory production. Moderna is on track for results from its Phase 3 trials by November, while Novavax has a vaccine candidate ready for production but is yet in Phase 1 trials though even there it succeeded in producing antibodies in patients four times as high as those who have recovered from COVID-19.

An engineer tests a vaccine at a lab in Beijing. Photo: Nicolas Asfouri/AFP

In the race for approval and production countries like the United States, Britain, France and Canada have committed to multiple agreements with various pharmaceutical companies close to completing their second and third phase trials. No fewer than 172 countries are engaged in their own research and preparing for production as soon as authorization can be achieved. For the most part, production will begin for many of them in 2021, but hopes are  high that a handful of the more advanced trials -- some of which have produced papers published in prestigious journals -- will see success before the year is out.

In two countries governments have authorized the inoculation of certain segments of the population who have offered themselves as volunteers even before final phases of the trials of the vaccine have not concluded. China boasts that it is the first country to begin inoculation its citizens, those earmarked as essential in reflection of the work they perform. International scientists view this as potentially hazardous. It is not only China, but Russia as well where volunteers have made themselves available as proverbial guinea pigs.

Because of the urgency to establish a protocol against the SARS-CoV-2 virus to return the world to the state it was in pre global pandemic, advance purchase agreements are allowing vaccine companies to begin early production to ensure that some vaccines will be available for distribution just as soon as they are approved. Advanced purchase agreements ensures that countries, hedging their bets by signing agreements with not only one, but several companies, can anticipate that one of the vaccines at the very least should be ready at an early date for inoculations.

Companies such as Moderna, Pfizer, Novavax and Johnson and Johnson make use of different, innovative methods in the creation of a vaccine to protect people from the virus. Dr.Bernstein notes that Canada has a relatively high rate of vaccine acceptance in the industrialized world alongside high trust by Canadians in their public health system which has as well a good track record of distribution and administering vaccines through the medium of the annual influenza vaccine campaign.

He has concerns, however, that go well beyond the timely infusion of a reliable and efficient vaccine for Canadians, in his consideration of the difficulties faced by areas in the developing world. International efforts have gone forward in financial contributions to ensure that poorer countries have swift and equal access to COVID-19 vaccines, once they're available. Dr.Bernstein would go further: 

U.K. scientists work on a potential COVID-19 vaccine. Carl Recine/Reuters

"If you think of the pandemic as a house fire, say a grease fire in your kitchen, it spreads really quickly. If you want to make sure you put the fire out, it has to be out in every room in  your house. If any embers are burning, it will flare up."  "Unless we get rid of it everywhere, not just in Canada, we have not got rid of it. Say we don't choose to buy vaccines for Africa or the Caribbean, is nobody going to travel? It is in our selfish interest to get rid of it and it's also the right thing to do."