As the coronavirus outbreak continues to disrupt many sectors within the global economy, any progress in the world seems to have been put on hold while drugmakers race to develop a vaccine. But what happens after a vaccine is approved for public use?
The World Health Organization's (W.H.O.) Chief Scientist Dr. Soumya Swamination predicted on Wednesday that young, healthy people may have to wait much longer than they expect to receive a coronavirus vaccine--even until 2022--due to the early limited supply and the unprecedented demand.
Swamination is hopeful that the world will have at least one that is safe and effective by 2021, but even then the shot will only be available in "limited quantities," meaning that the vaccine will most likely be rationed first to those more vulnerable like the elderly and health care workers before given more broadly.
"People tend to think that on the first of January or the first of April, 'I'm going to get the vaccine, and then things will be back to normal.' It's not going to work like that," Swamination stated, quoted by CNBC.
"Most people agree that it's starting with healthcare workers and frontline workers, but even then you need to define which of them are at highest risk and then the elderly and so on," Swamination added. "There will be a lot guidance coming out, but I think an average person, a healthy young person might have to wait until 2022 to get a vaccine."
The W.H.O.'s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on Immunization has recently published guidelines for world leaders to ethically distribute a vaccine. The guidelines focus on principles like treating all parts of the population equally while prioritizing the vaccine to groups where it is most needed once a drug it approved for public use.
There are over 10 pontential coronavirus vaccines that are in late-stage trials around the world to date. No vaccine has been approved for the prevention of COVID infection by the United Nations.
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The pauses in other studies show "there is no room for ignoring facts," Sahin said. "If there is a concern, the process stops. No one closes their eyes, and it should give people confidence that if a vaccine survives the development process and is approved, it should be regarded as safe."
The pair published data in the New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday that showed the method they used to narrow their lead candidate from their four potential vaccines. Its coronavirus vaccine candidate, BNT16b2, uses messenger RNA technology to train an individual immune system to create SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies. That way, when the vaccinated individual encounters the real virus, their immune system can easily fight it off.
The two plan to provide preliminary data on whether the vaccine is safe and effective as soon as this month, with a submission for regulatory approval later this year.
