How Would A Coronavirus Vaccine Work?

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For the past several months, the coronavirus has ravaged the world, forcing the public to incorporate new and foreign practices into their everyday lives. While a few have flourished in the midst of this global pandemic, the general consensus remains that COVID-19 has been disastrous for a significant portion of the international community. In the hope of regaining some semblance of normalcy in society, discussions have arisen in scientific circles regarding the development of an effective and efficient COVID-19 vaccine. 

Firstly, to examine the plausibility, efficacy, and timeliness of a COVID-19 vaccine, two fundamental concepts should be understood: viruses and vaccines. 

“A vaccine gives you a toned down infection… which trains your immune system to know what to attack, but it does it in a harmless way that doesn’t kill you,” biology teacher Elizabeth Wright said. “Outside of a cell, a virus can’t reproduce or hurt you… They are intracellular parasites, meaning once they get inside our cells they can completely take over and turn our cells into virus factories.”

Vaccines, while potentially effective in mitigating the severity of viruses, can be incredibly difficult to contrive. These adversities are often so prevalent that several months ago—when little substantive research on the coronavirus was available—scientists were forced to remind citizens that there was no guarantee a COVID-19 vaccine would ever be developed.  

“We can't make an absolute assumption that a vaccine will appear at all or... whether it will pass all the tests of efficacy and safety,” said Dr. David Nabarro, a professor of global health at Imperial College London, who also serves as a special envoy to the World Health Organization on COVID-19, as quoted by Rob Pichetta, a CNN reporter. 

Fortunately, recent developments in coronavirus research suggest that medical experts may be within reach of vaccine finalizations. The events of September 23 corroborated this possibility, with Johnson & Johnson becoming the fourth firm to enter the final stage of COVID-19 vaccine development. This may seem adequate reason for celebration, but Johnson & Johnson, along with their competitors, are now tasked with conducting the most substantial leg of their research: numerous potential vaccines must be administered to thousands of people to test for efficacy and safety. While the enormous sample of testees may appear excessive, it is a necessary component of potential vaccine evaluation. 

“Different people with different backgrounds have different responses to drugs and vaccines… Certain drugs work differently for different people,” said biology and chemistry Teacher Maria Luca. “It depends on your biological sex, your genetic background, and your family history, and a lot of other factors.”

Thus, given the various immune responses different individuals have to the same vaccine, it follows that the COVID-19 vaccine  must be tested on a diverse sample of people to collect comprehensive data on its efficacy. 

Another logistical challenge is vaccine distribution. To retain their antiviral properties, vaccines must be stored at specific temperatures while they are being transported to various medical centers. The transporters are responsible for preserving the vaccines’ temperature within a range of three degrees celsius, which, in turn, curbs vaccine denaturation.

“Denaturing is when proteins lose shape, sometimes because of temperature,” said Wright. “Our immune system recognizes things that are not us by shape, so in order to train our immune system what to fight against we have to give it the right shape. This vaccine has to have the same shape as the virus to be effective.”

If the logistical nightmare of vaccine transportation is resolved, society has yet another obstacle to overcome in its quest to vanquish COVID-19, namely, acquiring herd immunity. Achieving herd immunity is possible via two methods: mass infection or mass vaccination. The former could entail mass death, whereas the latter mandates the successful development of a vaccine. Once a coronavirus vaccine is procured, herd immunity would be achieved by maximizing the amount of immunized people, incapacitating virus reproduction by barring it from potential host cells.   

“[COVID-19] is a highly transmissible virus,” said Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, the Chief Scientist for the World Health Organization, in a published interview with Vismita Gupta-Smith, the Information Officer for the World Health Organization. “We think it needs at least 60 to 70% of the population to have immunity to really break the chain of transmission.”

Obtaining herd immunity is especially crucial for individuals who are physically incapable of receiving vaccinations, and, therefore, have limited protection against the virus. 

“The idea behind vaccines is to expose you to a small part of the virus or a weakened version of the virus,” said Luca. “If you give it to someone who is immunocompromised it might not work like it is supposed to.”

Consequently, those individuals who are incapable of being vaccinated will rely on the rest of society to vaccinate and isolate the spread of the coronavirus. For this reason, vaccination can be considered as more than a self-centered medical operation, but also a public health service. 

Bearing in mind the tribulations that accompany vaccine development and distribution, it is important to continue all safety procedures until medical experts instruct otherwise. Not only will this behavior limit the spread of COVID-19, but it will also lay the foundation for effective and efficient vaccine usage.