We May Never Have a COVID-19 Vaccine and Have to Live With The Disease Forever
As per reports, 37 per cent of vaccines fail in the first phase of testing itself. Whereas 69 per cent fail in the second stage. And 42 per cent go futile in the third phase. Only 10 per cent of total vaccines manage to reach the last stage and get approval.
Scientists around the world are in continuous fear that we may never be able to produce an effective vaccine against COVID-19 and have to live with the permanent risk of contracting the novel virus.
Currently, more than 100 vaccines are undergoing pre-clinical trials and a few have entered the human trial stage. Still, the researchers fear that the vaccines may not be able to cross the last hurdle and be available for the common people. This is because of the nature of this new coronavirus. According to the scientists, COVID-19 virus may change its structure in a few months when we hopefully have a vaccine but the change in its anatomy can turn the entire development, scientific processes and result futile.
According to a CNN report, in which Dr. David Nabarro, World Health Organization’s COVID-19 special envoy was quoted saying, “There are some viruses that we still do not have vaccines against. We cannot make an absolute assumption that a vaccine will appear at all, or if it does appear, whether it will pass all the tests of efficacy and safety.”
Notably, vaccine development is a very long procedure. And as per reports, 37 per cent of vaccines fail in the first phase itself. Whereas 69 per cent fail in the second stage. And 42 per cent go futile in the third phase. Only 10 per cent of total vaccines manage to reach the last stage and get approval.
Even after the approval, we are not sure if a vaccine would be effective in the general population. One of the examples for this is the dengue vaccine that came in 2015. It was found out to have severe negative impacts on the people in the Philippines. Instead of providing immunity against the virus, the vaccine made people critically ill with severe symptoms of the disease.
Also, it has been nearly four decades now but we still do not have a vaccine against HIV, which has caused around 32 million deaths till now.
According to a statement given by the UK’s Chief Medical Officer, Christopher Whitty to a Parliamentary committee, there is enough concerning evidence that shows, we may not able to develop a COVID-19 vaccine. One of the bases for this negative possibility is the reinfection. This means, getting the infection once is not making a person immune to it for a prolonged period.
Even the World Health organisation recently hinted towards the possibility of never be able to deal with the virus. If that happens, the only way the human race can survive is by developing herd immunity but in the process, a huge number of people will lost their lives.
With Inputs From IANS