Finally, we have good news in the last days of 2020. Nearly a year after the outbreak of the coronavirus, scientists have stated they made vaccines against Covid-19. To date, more than 58 million people have been infected, and about 1.3 million have died, according to official figures released by the World Health Organization. Figures are increasing every moment, and everyone wants to know when this nightmare will end.
During this time, countries have experienced the greatest economic damage in decades. The aviation and tourism industries stagnated, and millions lost their jobs. Many businesses have also failed to pay their debts to the banks and gone bankrupt. Many schools and universities are held online, and this greatly influences the teaching and learning process. The post-corona era is dark and cold. Everyone wants to go back to previous years and get rid of masks.
We all want to go to a party or a restaurant freely again. We haven’t gone to concerts or theaters for a long time. Most of the time, we prefer not to use public transportation because a cough from a stranger worries us. Even our family members or friends may have been infected or died. We may have asked ourselves when our turn would be.
Several world-renowned companies are now preparing to mass-produce the Covid-19 vaccines to overcome the global epidemic. Vaccines from Pfizer and BioNTech, Moderna, and Oxford-AstraZeneca are the main hopes for corona control. We all look to these companies, and of course, a few others, to produce the vaccines we need.
Pfizer and BioNTech have announced that the vaccine they have developed is 95% effective and could produce 1.3 billion doses in the next year. Moderna has estimated the effectiveness of their vaccine at 94.5% and has announced that it can produce 1 billion doses in 2021. The materials used in the vaccines produced by these companies are unstable and must be stored in sub-zero temperatures before use, so they must be stored and transported carefully.
But a new vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca has given everyone more hope because this vaccine is much cheaper and does not have storage problems related to temperature. As a result, it will be easier to distribute. The company said it would produce 3 billion doses of the vaccine next year.
These vaccines can affect the body if given in two shots. The second dose is given two to three weeks after the first one. Therefore, if these companies succeed in producing this number of vaccines by the end of 2021, and all of these vaccines are properly distributed, about 3 billion people can benefit from them. So we still need more, which takes longer.
One of the biggest challenges next year will be how to distribute and deliver vaccines to medical centers around the world. Pfizer and BioNTech vaccines should be stored at minus 70 degrees Celsius, and Moderna vaccines at minus 20 degrees Celsius. The Pfizer vaccine lasts for five days, but the Moderna vaccine can be stored for up to four weeks. Then, it is necessary to have the suitable equipment to deliver these vaccines to remote cities.
Preliminary data from the third phase of the Oxford University vaccine trial to prevent coronavirus infection shows that it would be more than 62% effective. The university stated that the effectiveness of the vaccine depends on the dose used. It would be effective 90 percent if given in half dose and then in the full dose and 62% if given two doses. It is also cheaper than the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines and can be stored at a temperature of two to eight degrees Celsius.
After the vaccines are distributed, they will be administered in order of priority. The elderly, medical staff, and those with pre-existing diseases are likely to be prioritized. It is not yet known how long the immunity of these vaccines lasts, but experts speculate that immunity will diminish over time and, like the flu vaccine, could need to be injected every year.
Making these vaccines has given us all hope, but that does not mean not wearing a mask or not observing hygiene. It has not ended. We have no data yet on how well the vaccines will stop the spread of Covid-19. Sure, big steps have been taken to improve the situation and we should be optimistic, but the experts are saying that we will still have a tough winter ahead.
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