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.
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Articles on mRNA vaccine
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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.
Because Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines have been developed in record time, many wonder whether companies cut corners or compromised safety.
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?
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.
Interim analysis of trial data isn't unusual – but leaves us with many things we still need to find out.
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.
Top contributors
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Vice-Chancellor's Research Fellow, School of Health and Biomedical Sciences, RMIT University
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Professor of Pharmaceutical Biology, Monash University
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Associate professor, UNSW
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Associate Professor, University of Melbourne, Murdoch Children's Research Institute
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Professor Emeritus of Health Policy and Management, York University, Emergency Physician at University Health Network, Associate Professor of Family and Community Medicine, University of Toronto
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Professor of Law, University of Waikato
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Professor of Medicine, University of Virginia
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Project Coordinator & Staff Scientist, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Vanderbilt University
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Early Career Research Leader, Emerging Viruses, Inflammation and Therapeutics Group, Menzies Health Institute Queensland, Griffith University
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Senior Lecturer in Biochemistry and Cell Biology, University College Cork
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Associate Professor and ARC Future Fellow, University of Western Australia
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Professor, Biology, York University, Canada
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Bioengineer and Research Fellow, Monash University
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Doctorante en virologie moléculaire, Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS)
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PhD Candidate, Quantitative Life Sciences, McGill University
