Rapid development information
Bill Tindall, E.Tn.
The vaccines currently, or about to be, in trial became available at what appears to be astonishing speed compared to former vaccines. Years were cut from the typical time line. The reason is not that corners were cut except Phase 2 and 3 of these trials were combined as a result of favorable results in the Phase 1 trial. So what changed?
Not making the news is a government funded program begun before this virus hit to come up with new ways to make a vaccine that didn't take years to develop. Advances in biochemistry have enabled new approaches to getting a piece of the virus into a person's body so as to develop an immune response.
For example, the vaccine being tested by Pfizer, developed by BioNTech a German company, injects some biochemicals that enter a person's cells. These biochemicals cause the cell to make the spike protein from the Corona virus. Early studies have shown that the presence of this spike protein triggers a strong immune response. In a nutshell your body is employed to make the vaccine, saving the lengthy steps to figure out how to make it outside the body and then inject the result.
With modern technology, it was a relatively easy task to figure out what the spike protein was and then make the biochemicals that would cause your cell to replicate it, saving years of conventional vaccine development. 42,000 people will be given this vaccine (more than 30,000 already) to see if there is any unforeseen adverse effect. If no adverse effects and at least 50% disease prevention it will be released. These 42,000 trial participants are closely monitored by an independent organization for adverse side effects and whether they are protected. Pfizer is betting $1.5 billion dollars of their stock holders money on the hope it works.
Other companies have taken different, and novel, approaches to getting something into a person's body that resembles a piece of the virus that triggers an immune response. In these cases too the shortening of the time to development is a result of a shorter way to get a piece of the virus into a person's body, not short cutting steps of convention vaccine development.
I suspect a person's motivation to take the vaccine when released will be strongly dependent on their aversion to getting the disease. If you are in a situation where there is a 10% chance of dying from the disease and a 0.001% chance of an adverse reaction the choice could be clear. Pfizer modeling predicts that of the people in the trial, 1.5% of them will be exposed to the virus sufficient to become infected in in the next year. There's your odds, take your chances.
