#Beware the face of mars full

There are also several research groups around the world developing vaccines aiming to work against all SARS-CoV-2 variants.

#Beware the face of mars full

Now we have 12 vaccines approved for full use in different parts of the world, 19 for emergency use, and more than 100 still in the clinical trial stages.īoth Pfizer and Moderna have also commenced clinical trials of an Omicron-specific vaccine. A few of these vaccines entered clinical trials, but none were approved.īefore Covid, the fastest developed vaccine was for mumps which took four years.īut in under 12 months, Pfizer/BioNTech developed a successful vaccine. There had been previous attempts to develop vaccines against severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), two similar coronaviruses that also caused outbreaks this century. In early 2020 we didn’t know whether a vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 was possible. Many were worried we wouldn’t get a vaccine Here are three things we realised were wrong as the pandemic wore on Some good news is that Australia’s Medical Research Future Fund will be funding research into long Covid this year. So, we simply cannot ignore high case numbers and would be wise to retain at least some public health measures (for example, face mask mandates) in order to bring case numbers down. With thousands of cases a day in Australia, over the next year we will be getting a tsunami of people suffering from long-term health problems. We need to provide a fourth vaccine dose as soon as possible to the elderly and vulnerable. Many older and vulnerable people had their third dose in November or December last year, with their immunity now waning fast. If approved, this should greatly help lift vaccination rates in many developing countries. Trials are currently under way to determine its efficacy against Omicron. It has over 80% efficacy against symptomatic disease, though this is against the no-longer dominant Delta variant. It has now received emergency use authorisation in India. It uses established and easy-to-manufacture technology, and is being provided patent-free to developing countries. Researchers at the Texas Children’s Hospital’s Center for Vaccine Development have unveiled a protein-based vaccine called Corbevax. COVAX is a worldwide facility funded by developed countries and donor organisations to purchase vaccines to be distributed to developing countries. This puts it out of reach financially for most developing countries, who then have to rely on the COVAX initiative for supplies. Vaccine manufacturers Pfizer and Moderna either manufacture the vaccine in their own facilities, or licence the right to produce the vaccine in other countries. The more the virus replicates in unvaccinated populations, the greater the chance of mutations and variants. One of the main reasons for this is the low rates of vaccination in many developing countries.

There’s still the potential for new and more severe variants to hit us.