Aasof’s Reflections

This week on FaceBook: I thought that I was going to leave Covid-19, but a comment made about the development of a vaccine on another site niggled away in my mind. It seems there is a global assumption that science and scientists have the answers to everything — even a vaccine¹ for the Covid-19 pandemic. Indeed, I posted the same thought on sciences and scientists developing a vaccine when the author made the following remarks:

Unless a vaccine saves us, quickly. Let us hope so. The politics of the pandemic

It may be that the causes of the next pandemic are not disease driven but already exist globally in the earth’s biosphere; mainly through human avarice (which we all share in), human compassion (which we all lack enough of), especially when coupled with political motivation (which drives us all). Each being something a vaccine cannot cure. My post Covid-19 Global Lockdown referred to two articles: the first being The microbes, the animals and us and the second Microbes in Motion: Touring World History, both articles point to the problems being microbiological in their origin. However, it is the contact with other humans carrying the microbes that causes them to multiply in societies lacking immunity to them.

In my post Corona-19 Pandemics & Politics, the video CORONA End Of The World concludes by asking the question, What if Corona Virus is not a sickness but a cure, and we are the virus to the earth? An article in The Atlantic goes someway to answering this question by asking another, Was There a Civilisation on Earth Before Humans? Considering answers to this question may lead to the conclusion that human avarice is a virus that endangers the continued existence of human life on earth. Perhaps less global inequality and more egalitarianism is the cure for this human avarice — it may be that the Covid-19 pandemic is indeed a wake up call.

1. CEPI expands investment in COVID-19 vaccine development: COVID-19 is having a huge impact on individuals, societies, and economies. CEPI is working at speed to develop a vaccine, which will be crucial in the world’s efforts to tackle this virus. CEPI has so far invested in the development of 6 vaccine candidates against COVID-19.

2. The COVID-19 vaccine development landscape: The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) is working with global health authorities and vaccine developers to support the development of vaccines against COVID-19. To facilitate this effort, we have developed and are continuously maintaining an overview of the global landscape of COVID-19 vaccine development activity.

3. How scientists are rushing to create a coronavirus vaccine: When will a coronavirus vaccine be ready? A vaccine that enables to resume our lives without restrictions while protecting us from the COVID-19 disease? Research labs around the world are racing to create a new vaccine. The idea is to simulate an infection, while avoiding the possibly severe symptoms of Covid-19. Once vaccinated, our immune system should destroy the coronavirus if we are exposed to it. According to the WHO, there are currently more than 60 teams of scientists working on a vaccine. Under normal circumstances, it would take more than ten years. But thanks to previous research efforts there’s a chance this process may be fast-tracked, with human trials already underway in some cases. But scientists agree that it will still take months until a vaccine is approved.

4. Inside the race to develop a coronavirus vaccine*: If a DNA or RNA vaccine against Covid-19 is ever approved, it will be a watershed moment – not just because it will bear out the promise of this technology, but also because the technology will fortify us against future pandemics. Over the past few years, epidemiologists, risk analysts and policymakers have made concerted efforts to sharpen research and rethink the industrial model of vaccine production, all in preparation for the hypothetical disaster they call Disease X: any unknown disease that springs suddenly into our species and races ruinously through it. Covid-19 is the first Disease X to arise since the term was invented, but it won’t be the last.

5.  Ensuring global access to COVID-19 vaccines: This vaccine effort should be guided by three imperatives: speed, manufacture and deployment at scale, and global access. In February, 2020, the World Bank and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), which funds development of epidemic vaccines, co-hosted a global consultation on these goals. This consultation led to the launch of a COVID-19 Vaccine Development Taskforce that is now working on how to finance and manufacture vaccines for global access.

¹Research and Development on Therapeutic Agents and Vaccines for COVID-19 and Related Human Coronavirus Diseases (url/pdf): Since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease COVID-19, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, this disease has spread rapidly around the globe. Considering the potential threat of a pandemic, scientists and physicians have been racing to understand this new virus and the pathophysiology of this disease to uncover possible treatment regimens and discover effective therapeutic agents and vaccines.