The race for a vaccine against COVID-19

About 70 research teams around the globe are racing to develop potential vaccines within a year.

A woman holds a small bottle labelled with a "Vaccine COVID-19" sticker and a medical syringe in this illustration taken April 10, 2020. © REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

Scientists are optimistic they can accelerate through various administrative steps without compromising safety.

Vaccines normally take about 10 years to go from a lab to a patient. Dr. Scott Halperin of the Canadian Immunization Research Network says it’s important to have multiple versions of the vaccine to achieve the same purpose but works in different ways.

“Hopefully, there'll be five, six, seven, eight successful vaccines, because we have a whole globe that we need to protect,” Dr. Scott Halperin said.

The first phase of the clinical trials is focused on safety. About 30 to 50 volunteers are given different doses of shots.

During the second phase, a higher number of people are tested to detect any side effects.

Vaccines around the globe :

China has a COVID-19 trail-vaccine that is starting a larger clinical test in humans. According to China’s Ministry of Science and Technology, CanSino Biologics is testing the vaccine which is adapted from the company’s Ebola research.

While in the U.S., the Inovio Pharmaceuticals’ potential vaccine that uses DNA sequence from the key spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 is on the Phase 1 trial as of last week.

National Institutes of Health and Massachusetts based biotech company Moderna Inc, recently injected a second dose of another potential vaccine to a volunteer. According to Dr. Anthony Fauci, there haven’t been any reg flags yet and a larger phase of testing might begin around June.

In the U.K., the University of Oxford also has a potential vaccine listed as Phase 2. But doses for the trail are still being made.

Canadian researchers hope to have some potential vaccines in clinical trails within four to six weeks.

How do vaccines work :

The goal of a vaccine is to expose our immune system to a small part of a virus so our antibodies can prepare to fight the larger virus when it hits in full force.

So even if you don’t have the virus, your body will recognize the virus as invaders and produce antibodies and remember them for the future. That way you will be safe from getting sick from viruses like COVID-19 in the future.

Written by: Aldrin Gomes.