(Estimated reading time: 6 minutes)
When it comes to vaccination, especially now as we are fighting against the pandemic and saving ourselves from the devastation it has brought, we must trust science. The scientific and research community has invested tremendous effort and time to seek and come up with new technology to hasten the production of a safe and effective vaccine to fight CoVID-19. We have seen some leaders of different nations have their vaccination dose when the vaccine was made available for the public to use. Now, all of us should follow suit as we continue to stop the spread of the deadly virus and bring back normalcy to our lives in the years to come.
We cannot underestimate the importance of vaccines when it comes to public health safety. Vaccines prevent deadly diseases. They reduce the risk of infection by working with the body's immune system, our body's natural protection against diseases. However, we will not discuss how vaccines work here now. To understand how vaccines work, you can watch this TED-Ed video.
Understanding how science works can help us understand that vaccines are essential for our survival. Science has proven many things in the past through rigorous research and studies. As we continue to understand the world around us and the physical and natural laws that govern everything we improved in many areas that are truly helpful to us. Think about our lives if we have not advanced in global positioning systems, flight safety, or health care. Imagine the struggle we could have faced if our scientists failed to understand many of the concepts behind those technologies.
More than the usability of science when applied to health and technology, the fact that scientists and researchers apply precise methods to their studies and systematic review of others' works in their respective fields that yield positive and affirmative results should add up to our confidence when it comes to the reliability of their findings. Consensus between different researchers and experts in scientific fields is crucial when reaching conclusions on sound scientific discoveries. It gives confidence that there are enough reasons to accept current scientific findings because different experiments surrounding such specific problems agree with each other. These methods apply equally when it comes to the development of vaccines to combat deadly diseases.
Thus, those mentioned above are reasons to trust the current vaccine developed to save us from the raging pandemic. To ensure the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine to be developed, there are stages or phases that vaccine developers all over the world should strictly follow.
Phase 1: A small number of volunteers are given for evaluating the safety, confirming immune response generation, determining the right dosage, and identifying side effects.
Phase 2: Several hundred volunteers are added to the trials to further test effectiveness, safety, and immune response. The demographics of the people for whom the vaccine is aimed is considered here. In several trials, there is a control group that did not get the vaccine and serves as comparators to help determine whether the changes in those who were vaccinated are caused by the vaccine being developed.
Phase 3: Thousands of volunteers are now included in the clinical trials and they are being compared to the comparator group. This helps confirm its effectiveness in a much larger group of people. This part of the clinical trial is also mostly conducted across different countries to assure that the findings apply to many different populations.
Lastly, the results of the clinical trials are made available. The vaccine's safety and efficacy are reviewed by officials in different countries to authorize its use. Other steps include the number of vaccines to be manufactured, production processes, manufacturing facilities inspection, and logistics.
Typical vaccine development takes 10 to 15 years of development. This raised so much concern when it comes to the current vaccines available for CoVID-19. Many thought that the speed of their development compromised safety and effectiveness. But there are many reasons to believe that the vaccines available for us have undergone the same rigorous steps to ensure that it will work without any harm to the public.
One is that scientists didn't start to work from scratch since CoVID-19 comes from a family of hundreds of coronaviruses that exist and are being studied for around 50 years. It assures us that the years of experience that researchers have are adequate for them to create another vaccine for a new but similar type of virus. Worldwide cooperation also largely contributed to speedy research and clinical trials.
Another is the advances in the field of genome sequencing that helped uncover the viral sequence of the new coronavirus. Genome sequencing helps identify genetic patterns related to the lethality of certain diseases and genetic factors that contribute to immunity or successful vaccine response.
This underscores the importance of governments' support and funding for scientific research in their countries. We need to increase the effort done in this area to be prepared for other challenges to come. Governments should also explain to their citizens the importance of getting the vaccine through an effective information campaign. They must ensure to the people that vaccines are safe and effective and help save many lives. Politics and personal opinions must be avoided to convince the public that it is the most ethical choice they can do for themselves and others. Another important thing to consider is that people in some areas such as those in rural communities don't have enough knowledge about the importance of getting the vaccine, much less how they can obtain one. Government leaders should ensure that everyone has an equal chance to receive the available vaccine.
Sadly there are many challenges when convincing some people why getting the vaccine is critical. Conservative distrust still permeates in the minds of many and they are being spread by people with a certain degree of influence such as religious leaders, entertainment celebrities, and politicians. Certain myths are being propagated against the safety of having vaccinated, and all of them are unfounded. Science provides enough evidence for us to give our full confidence with the current vaccine being developed to fight the pandemic.
Vaccines are safe and effective and save many lives from many life-threatening diseases. Getting vaccinated is critical now as we continue the struggle to end the pandemic. We should remember that enormous effort and time has been given by many people on their search to provide the world with the help it needed. Let us keep in mind that getting vaccinated means that we care for our health, our lives, and the lives of others around us. Getting vaccinated against CoVID-19 is the right thing to do.
More than the usability of science when applied to health and technology, the fact that scientists and researchers apply precise methods to their studies and systematic review of others' works in their respective fields that yield positive and affirmative results should add up to our confidence when it comes to the reliability of their findings. Consensus between different researchers and experts in scientific fields is crucial when reaching conclusions on sound scientific discoveries. It gives confidence that there are enough reasons to accept current scientific findings because different experiments surrounding such specific problems agree with each other. These methods apply equally when it comes to the development of vaccines to combat deadly diseases.
Thus, those mentioned above are reasons to trust the current vaccine developed to save us from the raging pandemic. To ensure the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine to be developed, there are stages or phases that vaccine developers all over the world should strictly follow.
Phase 1: A small number of volunteers are given for evaluating the safety, confirming immune response generation, determining the right dosage, and identifying side effects.
Phase 2: Several hundred volunteers are added to the trials to further test effectiveness, safety, and immune response. The demographics of the people for whom the vaccine is aimed is considered here. In several trials, there is a control group that did not get the vaccine and serves as comparators to help determine whether the changes in those who were vaccinated are caused by the vaccine being developed.
Phase 3: Thousands of volunteers are now included in the clinical trials and they are being compared to the comparator group. This helps confirm its effectiveness in a much larger group of people. This part of the clinical trial is also mostly conducted across different countries to assure that the findings apply to many different populations.
Lastly, the results of the clinical trials are made available. The vaccine's safety and efficacy are reviewed by officials in different countries to authorize its use. Other steps include the number of vaccines to be manufactured, production processes, manufacturing facilities inspection, and logistics.
Typical vaccine development takes 10 to 15 years of development. This raised so much concern when it comes to the current vaccines available for CoVID-19. Many thought that the speed of their development compromised safety and effectiveness. But there are many reasons to believe that the vaccines available for us have undergone the same rigorous steps to ensure that it will work without any harm to the public.
One is that scientists didn't start to work from scratch since CoVID-19 comes from a family of hundreds of coronaviruses that exist and are being studied for around 50 years. It assures us that the years of experience that researchers have are adequate for them to create another vaccine for a new but similar type of virus. Worldwide cooperation also largely contributed to speedy research and clinical trials.
Another is the advances in the field of genome sequencing that helped uncover the viral sequence of the new coronavirus. Genome sequencing helps identify genetic patterns related to the lethality of certain diseases and genetic factors that contribute to immunity or successful vaccine response.
This underscores the importance of governments' support and funding for scientific research in their countries. We need to increase the effort done in this area to be prepared for other challenges to come. Governments should also explain to their citizens the importance of getting the vaccine through an effective information campaign. They must ensure to the people that vaccines are safe and effective and help save many lives. Politics and personal opinions must be avoided to convince the public that it is the most ethical choice they can do for themselves and others. Another important thing to consider is that people in some areas such as those in rural communities don't have enough knowledge about the importance of getting the vaccine, much less how they can obtain one. Government leaders should ensure that everyone has an equal chance to receive the available vaccine.
Sadly there are many challenges when convincing some people why getting the vaccine is critical. Conservative distrust still permeates in the minds of many and they are being spread by people with a certain degree of influence such as religious leaders, entertainment celebrities, and politicians. Certain myths are being propagated against the safety of having vaccinated, and all of them are unfounded. Science provides enough evidence for us to give our full confidence with the current vaccine being developed to fight the pandemic.
Vaccines are safe and effective and save many lives from many life-threatening diseases. Getting vaccinated is critical now as we continue the struggle to end the pandemic. We should remember that enormous effort and time has been given by many people on their search to provide the world with the help it needed. Let us keep in mind that getting vaccinated means that we care for our health, our lives, and the lives of others around us. Getting vaccinated against CoVID-19 is the right thing to do.
Sources:
Solis-Moreira, Jocelyn, How did we develop a COVID-19 vaccine so quickly? Published December 15, 2020, Retrieved January 14, 2021
Read further:
PublicHealth staff writers, Vaccine Myths Debunked, Published January 13, 2021, Retrieved January 14, 2021
Photo by Steven Cornfield on Unsplash
Vaccines against COVID-19: Safe, Effective, Ethical by Leandro Angelo Castro is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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