Researchers are already working to improve the current crop of mRNA vaccines. Hopefully this will help them become more practical and affordable for the entire world, not just first-world countries.
A biologist explains what proteins do in viruses, how they interact with human cells, how the vaccine delivers mRNA into the cell and how antibodies protect us.
Perhaps you’ve heard mRNA vaccines cause autoimmune disease, or connect you to the internet. Now the Pfizer vaccine has been approved in Australia, it’s important we iron out these misconceptions.
Historically, we immunized children against diseases like polio that were a clear danger to them, but COVID-19 is usually mild in children. However, herd immunity is unlikely without vaccinating kids.
Rollout of COVID-19 vaccines has begun. But getting the jab doesn’t mean abandoning masks, distancing and handwashing. Here’s why the current preventive measures must continue post-vaccine.
The best approach for protecting everyone’s health will require us to provide different vaccines to different people according to need and availability.
We should applaud drug companies for developing COVID-19 vaccines in record time, but let’s not be under any illusion about the profits that are motivating them.
Vaccine hesitancy is not new, but it has a new element: few people can remember the devastating impact of diseases such as smallpox and polio and it is hard to see the lives saved by vaccination.
Two pharma companies have announced early COVID-19 vaccine trial results with over 90 per cent effectiveness. What does that mean for getting back to normal?
Aïssatou Aïcha Sow, Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS)
Canada has set aside a total of 414 million doses of different types of vaccine. Some exploit known mechanisms, others are based on previously untested approaches.
Early analysis suggests this vaccine has an efficacy of over 90%. So if you took ten people who were going to get sick from COVID-19 and vaccinated them, only one would get sick.
Two more COVID-19 vaccines may now be on the cards for Australia, should they pass clinical trials. But, as with earlier vaccine deals, there are no guarantees.
So-called mRNA vaccines are among the frontrunners in the global race to design a COVID vaccine. But as a new technology, most nations, including Australia, lack the capacity to produce them at scale.
Results from phase 1 trials of a COVID-19 mRNA vaccine created a burst of optimism. But details the company failed to release suggest it is too early to speculate whether the vaccine is effective.