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Pfizer vaccine

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Pfizer vaccine:

Context:

A vaccine jointly developed by Pfizer and BioNTech was 90 per cent effective in preventing Covid-19 infections in ongoing Phase 3 trials.

What is Phase 3 trial?

During phase three vaccine trials the emphasis for drugmakers is on both determining the efficacy and the safety of a vaccine.

  • This is done so that explicit data can be presented to the various global and national bodies which govern the approval and registering of drugs.
  • If the vaccine is determined effective and relatively safe it will be approved for distribution.

How the vaccine was developed?

  • The Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine uses messenger RNA (mRNA) technology, which relies on synthetic genes that can be generated and manufactured in weeks, and produced at scale more rapidly than conventional vaccines.
  • Unlike traditional vaccines, which work by training the body to recognise and kill proteins produced by pathogens, mRNA tricks the patient’s immune system to produce viral proteins itself. The proteins are harmless, but sufficient to provoke a robust immune response.

Challenges ahead:

  1. Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine is among the ones requiring storage at ultracold temperatures. But, billions of people are in countries that don’t have the necessary infrastructure to maintain the cold chain for either existing vaccines or more conventional coronavirus candidates.
  2. Many questions also remain including how long the vaccine will provide protection.
  3. WHO has also warned that there was a funding gap of $4.5bn that could slow access to tests, medicines and vaccines in low- and middle-income countries.

But, in general, why do we need to vaccinate?

The big idea behind vaccinating the public is to reach an inflection point where so many people will have taken the vaccine that the virus doesn’t have enough viable hosts to continue jumping from person to person and, eventually, as the overwhelming number of people who are essentially partially-immune increase, the virus dies out. This is a form of herd immunity.

InstaLinks:

Prelims Link:

  1. Differentiate between- RT- PCR, Rapid antibody and rapid antigen tests.
  2. What are antibodies?
  3. Wha are antigens?
  4. How body’s immune system works?
  5. What are lymphocytes?
  6. What is mRNA technology?

Mains Link:

Write a note on rapid antigen tests.

Sources: the Hindu.