There are many potential vaccines for Covid-19 that are being developed. A lot of work has been done in a short amount of time. There are about 40 potential vaccines in clinical trials and 9 that have reached the final stages of testing.

 

Governments and their scientific advisors seem to be running out of ideas. A vaccine is seen as the holy grail in the fight against Covid. However, new restrictions are being imposed all the time, and these are usually announced with the phrase "until we have a vaccine". It's important to remember that new vaccines don't always work.

Is it possible that we are asking too much of a vaccine?

People are often hopeful that a vaccine will get rid of SARS-CoV-2 for good. But is it possible that we are expecting too much from the vaccine in the early stages?

There is a concept in medicine called sterilising immunity. This means that if someone is vaccinated, they will be totally protected from a virus. However, this does not always happen with coronaviruses. It is more likely that if someone is inoculated, they will be 50% protected from the virus. This means that the vaccine One of the most advanced Covid-19 vaccine projects is being developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca. Experiments in macaques showed that the vaccine protected them from developing pneumonia, but some virus remained in their upper airways.

Candidate vaccines a potential game-changer

Even if the candidate vaccines are not perfect, they could still make a big difference. This is because they both lower the chances of getting infected, and if you do get infected, the illness will be much less serious. So it's good on two fronts.

If we stop calling Covid-19 a serious disease, the need for restrictions on our lives and the economy will be over. This will allow us to return to our normal lives and make the economy stronger.