Several different vaccines against COVID-19 are in various stages of testing globally, including in Britain, China and the United States.
Earlier this month, Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands signed an agreement with AstraZeneca to guarantee the supply to the European Union of 300 million doses of a possible COVID-19 vaccine.
Groups including the vaccine alliance GAVI are also working to buy doses for poor countries and AstraZeneca has agreed to license its vaccine to India’s Serum Institute for the production of one billion doses. The World Health Organisation is drafting guidelines for the ethical distribution of the virus vaccines.
The World Health Organization is reviewing clinical trials of all the drugs developed to treat coronavirus in different countries. The health body will only approve a drug after a thorough review of the effects, benefits, and harms of vaccines.
The World Health Organisation has also warned against spraying disinfectant on the streets, as practiced in some countries, saying it does not eliminate the new coronavirus and that it poses a health risk.
The latest vaccine against COVID-19
A vaccine jointly developed by Pfizer and BioNTech was 90% effective in foiling coronavirus disease in ongoing stage 3 trials, the companies announced on Monday.
The development came as soaring COVID-19 cases across the globe have forced millions of people back into lockdown, causing further damage to ravaged economies.
As per initial findings, protection in patients from a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds was achieved seven days after the second of two vaccine doses, and 28 days after the first.
The companies said they health export to supply up to 50 million vaccine doses internationally in 2020, and up to 1.3 billion in 2021.
A spokesman for Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that Britain has procured 40m doses, with 10m set to be available by year’s end.
Pfizer Chairman and CEO Albert Bourla said in a statement the first set of results from the Phase 3 coronavirus vaccine trial gives the initial evidence of the vaccine’s ability to prevent the virus.
Albert Bourla said they are a significant step closer to providing people around the world with a much-needed infiltrate to assist bring an end to this international health disaster.
Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine not suitable for Pakistan
Chairman of Prime Minister’s Task Force on Science and Technology Atta-ur-Rahman has claimed that the Pfizer vaccine being hailed worldwide is not suitable for Pakistan.
According to Dr Atta-ur-Rahman, the Pfizer vaccine against CIVID-19 is not suitable for Pakistan. The former head of the HEC warned that it was too early to celebrate the news regarding the vaccine, and they should focus on the vaccines that are already being developed and have seen similar results.
The renowned scientist said he was cautious because he believes that the vaccine has five problems to deal with right now. The first problem is that the US Food and Drug Authority (FDA) has not given the approval and the regulatory bodies have to approve will take two months, he said.
He added that the regulatory bodies will have to see the results first then allow the company to move on to the next stage of the vaccine finalization process. The other problem that the scientist highlighted was that the vaccine needs to be kept at a temperature of -80 °C, which in his view was a major problem for third-world countries including Pakistan.
He said that the developing countries do not have the cold chain that will allow them to transport the vaccine in such extreme temperatures from the point of origin to the hospitals. He said that giving two doses of the vaccine also makes it difficult to rely on the vaccine.
The third problem is that one does not know how many days it is effective, said Dr Rehman. The other two problems shared by the doctor were large-scale production and the price of the vaccine.
Chinese vaccines showing positive results
Dr Rehman said that there are eleven other vaccines apart from Pfizer that are in phase 3 clinical trials. He said Pakistan is administering trials of two Chinese vaccines and showing positive results.
A Chinese vaccine by Sinopharm is also in phase 3 clinical trials and has seen good results in multiple countries but has not been highlighted like Pfizer. The company has also committed to giving the vaccine to Pakistan at reasonable rates.
He explained that Chinese vaccines can also be transported in normal temperatures do not have to be kept at -80°C degrees which makes it better suited for Pakistan and third world countries.
COVID-19 claims 7000 lives in Pakistan
Till now, the coronavirus has claimed 7,000 lives and infected 346,476 people. According to the data released by the National Command and Operations Center, 1,637 new cases of coronavirus have been reported in the country and the total number of affected people has reached 346,476.
The coronavirus has killed 2,420 people in Punjab and 2,687 in Sindh. The death toll in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has risen to 1,290, Islamabad 244, Balochistan 154, Gilgit-Baltistan 93, and Azad Kashmir 112.
The coronavirus has affected 51,243,488 people and killed 1,269,319 in the world. So far, more than 36 million coronavirus patients have recovered and 1, 39, 18,137 are undergoing treatment. The United States has the highest number of cases and deaths due to coronavirus worldwide.
What should be done?
Currently, the conditions brought on by severe Covid-19 are scary and mysterious. It attacks the lungs and travels to other organ systems. We’re still learning about it. But with the help of supercomputers and data, we will learn fast. We’re not sure which therapies work in later stages (we know which don’t).
Rather than waiting for a vaccine the government of Pakistan as well as the nation needed to implement a previous strategy against the virus.
The federal government should guide provinces on pandemic policy and help reinforce their health systems but also permit them to devise their local strategies guided by medical experts.
The government should work with the parliamentary opposition on its response, particularly on providing a safety net to vulnerable parts of society.
The number of new COVID-19 cases continues to rise for the 4th consecutive week in Pakistan, new cases reported grew by more than 1,000 per day.
Pakistan has been a good example for the world with its pandemic-related policies. The figures show that Pakistan has done better than in other countries.
In the post-July euphoria period in Pakistan, however, when COVID-19 cases were successfully lowered after restrictions and SOPs were enforced, mask-wearing sadly remained voluntary.
The nation must realize that the second wave of the deadly virus is on the rise and SOPs must be strictly followed in order to stop the spread.
People should also realize that no one is immune to the virus and anyone can get infected, especially when they become overly optimistic and neglect precautionary measures.
