KT edit: In science we trust

It heralds a new path for biotech revolution and could possibly help develop vaccine for other type of viruses that have until now not responded to preventive drugs

Living under the shadow of the Covid-19 pandemic for a good part of this year, every news of a potential vaccine brings joy and sparks hopes of normalcy returning to our lives sooner than later. The disclosure by American pharmaceutical company Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech that a vaccine developed by them has efficacy of more than 90 per cent sent people around the world cheering. It is a new type of RNA vaccine that uses genetic coding to stimulate immune systems, and has never been deployed before. It heralds a new path for biotech revolution and could possibly help develop vaccine for other type of viruses that have until now not responded to preventive drugs.

This news, along with the successful trials in the UAE and other countries of Sinopharma’s vaccine, brings hope the virus can be beaten, or controlled. We need similar studies and surveys to be conducted for more vaccines that are undergoing trails at various stages. We need that information to be shared widely to reinforce confidence and remove any bias around vaccine nationalism and certain types of drugs as the world eagerly awaits solution to the pandemic. Successful human trials have allayed doubts that this novel coronavirus, like others from the same family such as malaria and HIV, might not respond to preventive drugs. There are also concerns that a mutation is originating in mink in Denmark, but with the collective effort that is being put in the development of a vaccine, we will find a way to fight that, too. In science we trust.