[imagesource: PAHO]

We’re still a long, long way off from completely eradicating COVID-19, but scientists have covered some serious ground since those first few months of uncertainty as they struggled to get a handle on what has proven to be an extremely complicated virus.

You can now make an appointment by calling the clinic at your local Clicks, where you’ll have your finger pricked, your blood tested, and within 15 minutes leave knowing whether or not you’ve built up antibodies to the virus.

Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, in partnership with BioNTech, has also announced a vaccine which they say is about 90% to 95% effective.

Unfortunately, it’s unlikely that the vaccine will become widely available in South Africa.

Naturally, the promise of a vaccine has given rise to a number of questions, some of which The Guardian tackled.

Is it safe?

History has shown us that rushing a vaccine can have unintended consequences.

At this stage, it’s impossible to know for sure whether or not a vaccine could have long-term adverse effects.

They are licensed on the basis of data from clinical trials, which aim to assess their short-term safety, and ability to generate an immune response.

It is also important to note that most adverse events occur shortly after receiving a vaccine, rather than after many months or years, said Prof Robin Shattock, the head of mucosal infection and immunity at Imperial College London.

So far, more than 43 538 people have enrolled in the Pfizer trial. Roughly half of them were given the actual vaccine, while the control group received placebos. So far it seems to be fine.

“If you go to 10 million people, you can never rule out that there won’t be someone out there who might respond in an abnormal way,” Shattock said.

“I think people have to make a judgment call, because if you have some underlying health condition that nobody predicted, which might give you a worse response to the vaccine, it would probably give you a far worse response to the actual virus.”

Even after the rollout, scientists will have to carefully monitor the situation to identify side-effects, because they didn’t include people with underlying vulnerabilities in the study.

How long does the RNA in the vaccine stick around for?

The vaccine contains messenger RNA which makes cells produce spike/ viral proteins.

“I think people are concerned when they hear the term ‘genetic material’, but the really good thing about RNA is that it falls apart very quickly – in a cell, it’ll hang around for about 72 hours,” Shattock said.

“And it doesn’t get into the nucleus where your chromosomes are, so there’s zero chance that it can change your genes.”

The idea is the RNA will trigger an immune response that builds up a resistance to the virus.

Do you still need the vaccine if you’ve already had COVID-19?

To date, the clinical trials have focused on people who haven’t already contracted COVID-19, so the effect on people who have been ill is unclear.

However, since immunity to the virus seems to wane over time, it probably would be worth getting vaccinated. “The level of immunity from natural infection is really variable, so some people get a very strong immune response, and some people get quite a weak immune response,” said Shattock.

“The vaccine would top up your immune response, and hopefully provide protection for longer.”

Even once people have been vaccinated they will likely require booster shots to keep their immunity topped up.

Think of it like a flu shot. You have to go every year to make sure that you’re vaccinated ahead of flu season.

You can check out more questions and answers here.

I’m sure most of us would readily accept a vaccine if it became available, but the long and short of it is that it isn’t guaranteed to provide a once-off remedy to the pandemic.

Masks, sanitising, and physical distancing will remain our first line of defence for some time.

[source:guardian]