HOW DID THE COVID-19 VACCINES DEVELOP SO FAST?

There have never been any possible vaccines for HIV that go into the final clinical trials of the Covid-19 vaccine, but how did this happen, and why are vaccines so quickly available this time?

Just ten months ago, when the death toll from coronavirus was simultaneous and the same disease had not been identified, a team of Chinese scientists introduced a genetic sequence into the public domain. That started a record-breaking run to build antiretroviral drugs - a drug introduced by experts that could ultimately kill an epidemic.

The major impact of coronavirus is speeding up, opening up a lump sum and encouraging research teams around the world to join the hunt. But the astounding progress of the virus is also the result of the virus itself: It is, in fact, scientifically easier to administer potential vaccines than other viruses, as well as a large array of new vaccine platforms on new scientific tools.

"As soon as we found the sequence, we pulled out a bullet to ask how fast we could go," said Barney Graham, deputy director of the National Institutes of Health's Vaccine Research Center.

Indeed, progress to date has remained the same. Vaccines are now undergoing a real test: long months, Phase 3 tests that will show whether they protect people from the virus or not.

"This is a big test and no one knows how it will happen," said James Le Duc, director of the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston National Laboratory

Goals usually take years, if not decades, to reach people; the record is now four years of vaccination. Here is what prompted Covid-19's attempt to eliminate previous attempts so far.

It’s hard to associate anything with this epidemic with good luck, but the fact that the culprit was a coronavirus - which was remarkably similar to others who had been jumping from animals to humans - meant scientists could quickly reorganize vaccine projects in their works. It was almost like changing the blue Lego to something red at their meetings.

Many teams pursuing the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine (the scientific name for the new coronavirus) have previously worked on the first SARS vaccine, which caused an outbreak in 2003 that killed about 800 people, and MERS, which caused 2 500 cases have since spread in 2012.

Previous projects have identified a segment of coronaviruses called spike protein as a mature target for a vaccine, which has given scientists the first opportunity to create their own representatives. The operation of SARS also illuminated the barriers to the development of coronavirus vaccines that have been avoided by Covid-19 vaccines to date.

"What really helped was the information obtained from SARS-1 infection," said Rama Rao Amara, a research and immunization researcher at Emory University. “SARS-2 is very similar to SARS-1, especially in that spike protein. People can take the educated guess that this is the protein we need to follow.”

A strong infection, not a chronic one

SARS-CoV-2 causes a deadly disease, Covid-19. It is an infection that most people will diagnose on their own, which means that there is an immune response to the vaccine that you do not intend to do to protect people.

That is not true of something like HIV, a virus that has no vaccine despite decades of research. HIV creates chronic infections and interacts with human genomes; there is no natural immune response to the virus that a vaccine can mimic. HIV also mutates much faster than coronaviruses, which means it is much harder to get lasting protection.

It is possible, then, that a pathogen that is more difficult to develop a vaccine than a coronavirus could spread the disease.

"We were better prepared for coronavirus than any other family," said NIH's Graham

Methods of cutting

Vaccines train the immune system to detect an uninfected pathogen.

Normally, our immune system builds up that memory by fighting infection, so that it can stop the virus from invading the system if it tries to attack a second time. The vaccine works as the first vaccine, but without making people sick.

With SARS-CoV-2, researchers are working on new ways to provide that first look, developing vaccines on adaptive platforms designed to cut easily from pathogen to pathogen.

Older anti-retroviral strategies, such as detecting and weakening the virus, are lengthy procedures. But cutting techniques require that scientists know only the genetic makeup of viruses. Thus, they can put together the right pieces of code to combine terms.

That allowed scientists to move at a record speed. Less than 10 weeks after the Chinese scientists released the SARS-CoV-2 sequence, a team from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and biotech company Moderna had a person who was ready for a phase 1 trial.

The Moderna / NIAID vaccine is made up of mRNA, a piece of genetic code that contains the instructions for coronavirus ’spike protein. The vaccine locks the mRNA into cells, "reads" those instructions, and releases the protein - giving the immune system that advanced test, such as smell.

A team from Pfizer and the German company BioNTech are also working on the mRNA vaccine, while a company called Inovio is pursuing a vaccine based on a different gene, DNA. No mRNA or DNA vaccine has ever been approved before.

Knowing the coronavirus sequence and promoting alternatives. Other groups - including Johnson & Johnson, Chinese company CanSino, and a partnership between Oxford University and AstraZeneca - are inserting a spike-protein protein into one, a harmless virus that infects cells. There, exposed to the spike, it allows the immune system to increase its strength. Another company, Novavax, produces a variety of speakers from the genus and uses them directly in its vaccine.

Protein spike is a systematic choice. By blocking spike proteins, then vaccines can prevent infection. Spikes are also a fragment of the “freeze” virus, which means it stimulates the body’s immune system. (Some terms are all based on the spike, while others include specific components.)

Researchers do not rely solely on the development of vaccines. New genetic innovation, immunology, and structural biology have also accelerated the pace of Covid-19 goals. One-way scientists find out more about spike protein is, for example, using methods that have been proven over the years to research HIV proteins.

Money, money, money

Finding a vaccine approved is not just a scientific journey. It's about money too.

Another reason why the development of medicine has slowed down, in general, is that companies want to see baptism candidates successfully pass each stage of the development process before investing in the next phase.

But that toy book doesn't fly away.

"This is the biggest emergency we've ever had in our lives," said Kawsar Talaat, an infectious disease doctor and vaccine researcher at Johns Hopkins. “Money is nothing.

Consolidating corporations, funding agencies, including governments and foundations such as the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, or CEPI, throws millions - and in some cases, billions - on goal hunting. On Sunday, for example, Moderna said she received $ 472 million from the U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, more than $ 483 million it received in April.

Money is not just a cover for research, and getting companies to start producing their own products - even if their policies may not work. It is a so-called "risky" production strategy, and public health experts say it is necessary to ensure that any approved vaccine can be released to more people as soon as possible.

The U.S. government also entered into an agreement with companies to buy their drugs even before the clinical trial was completed, including a $ 1.6 billion contract with Novavax that includes 100 million doses and a $ 1.95 billion compact with Pfizer and BioNTech, also 100 million doses.

"The fact that the industry is able to fend off its betting and make these investments is because the government has set aside this money," said Le Duc of UTMB. Some will be overweight and will lose money.”

Careful control

Weed control decisions do not receive much public attention, but they do help to speed up clinical trials and final evaluation of the effectiveness of the drug.

Many of these studies were first studied during the Ebola crisis in West Africa, where regulators adopted new technologies in green light vaccine testing and took a more proactive approach to communicate with companies about the appropriate performance limits needed to meet the requirements.

The Ebola crisis “has given regulators more information and they are more comforted by the idea that they can be more flexible than they would otherwise be,” said Mark Feinberg, president

In May they found that Black Americans and Latin Americans, who had been severely traumatized by the epidemic and had a history of medical malpractice, were more skeptical of Covid-19 vaccines than white Americans - highlighting the importance of campaigns to reach out to public health professionals.

Some have raised concerns that President Trump - whose immunization program called Operation Warp Speed - could force immediate approval of a vaccine before the election, even if it did not remove performance and safety standards. President-elect Joe Biden has raised a number of political concerns that have hampered the search for a vaccine.

Scientists and regulators have already insisted that defenses are not confined to prison. Public health experts say that vaccine manufacturers need to make it clear that while production and control measures are still being developed, safety tests are not being offered.

In a call to reporters, NIH Director General Francis Collins, former President Obama first touched on the position, defending the integrity of the decisions to be made by regulators. "Nothing is being done here to jeopardize the safety" of the Covid-19 vaccine test, he said, "and we will not allow a complete decision on whether the vaccine works. Those problems will be tested in a very serious way."

A vaccine that prevents even 50% of infections can be a major lifeline. But experts are concerned that there is a disconnect between public anticipation medications to quickly reset their lives and what the original vaccines may actually allow.

Effective vaccines will likely be given to key personnel and people at risk in the first place. It can take time to make enough vaccines for everyone who wants to be shot. Some vaccines will require two doses to provide protection.

"It may not be a magic bullet that will stop the epidemic in its tracks, and people need to be prepared for that," said Columbia virus scientist Angela Rasmussen of the first vaccines that reach humans. “I really hate the term vaccination race. Because that means there will be an awards ceremony, and the epidemic is over.