Are you tired of this pandemic and wondering how much of it is left? Have your plans been canceled? How long do you have to wait for the Coronavirus to leave? Well, this article is here to give you an idea of how much more Coronavirus is left.
Ever since the genome structure of the virus has been released, drug-producing companies have been competing with one another in the development of a vaccine. Governments rushed to prepare policies that will fight the virus and severely restrict its spread. As the cases continue to surge daily, how long for Coronavirus to end.
How Long it Takes to Develop a Vaccine?
It generally takes ten to fifteen years to develop a vaccine, but the crisis that Coronavirus created made the companies rush into creating a vaccine. Companies and government around the world have dedicated all their resources to creating a vaccine that responds to the virus. The vaccine should be proven to be safe and effective.
It usually takes a long time to develop the vaccine as it has to pass several trials to be implemented. Trials are important as we want to know whether the vaccine is effective, and does not have serious side effects. The vaccine needs to pass the trials as people don’t want to have a vaccine that cures Coronavirus, but it harms them on other sides. Now how the trial process works?
Clinical development of a vaccine constitutes three phases after the vaccine has passed animal trials. In the first phase, the vaccine is given to a small group of people. In the second phase, the vaccine is expanded and distributed to a larger group of people. This group of people has similar characteristics to the first group in age, physical health, etc. After the vaccine has passed those phases thousands of people receive the trial vaccine. This way, we observe and test the efficacy of the vaccine and how it deals with the virus.
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How Close are Companies Reaching a Coronavirus Vaccine?
Ever since the genome structure was released earlier this year, drug-producing companies have rushed into developing a new vaccine. They are competing every day as to who is going to have the vaccine produced first. The question is, how close have those companies come to producing the vaccine. There are different statements and predictions by several health officials and representatives of drug-producing companies on when we will have the vaccine. However, here are some companies that have made it close:
When they were informed about the genome of the virus, scientists at the Jenner Institute rushed into the laboratory in an attempt to create a vaccine. Jenner Institute in Oxford is known for its vaccine developments. Before Coronavirus, they were also trying to find a vaccine for MERS, which has a similar sequence to Coronavirus. Because of their similarity, they were quickly able to modify the vaccine so it can work for Coronavirus and have already proceeded to human trials.
The vaccine that is being developed by Jenner Institute is expected to be ready by the first half of 2021. Oxford may be leading the race now, but it wasn’t the first one to start human trials. The first human trial for the coronavirus vaccine was initiated by Moderna, a drug-producing company. The difference between this vaccine is that it uses the mRNA vaccine, which has never been used as a vaccine.
This vaccine is also expected to be distributed by early 2021, and they’ve already signed up deals for the manufacturing of the vaccine. There were also attempts from a couple of Chinese companies, but they don’t have patients for human trials. Thus, we are not able to know the efficacy of this vaccine.
Although the chances to have a vaccine by early 2021, this only initiates the beginning of the end. In other words, there will be a process of manufacturing and distributing the vaccine that has to take place. There’s no reliable prediction of how long that process will take, but it is known for sure that a vaccine will be developed quite soon.
Can Restrictions End the Virus?
For the Coronavirus to end through restrictions, each government in the world would have to engage in full lockdowns that we would have to close the world until all the cases are discovered and cured. This is a less likely scenario as economies are not able to handle a simultaneous lockdown across the globe. Chains of production would be broken even more, and famine would be inevitable. Simply said, the earth can not stand a full lockdown and wait for every case to be determined and tracked.
Moreover, this would also be unproductive as we still don’t know how long immunity lasts. It can be that after we all go for lockdown and have discovered and cured all the cases, later on, another case can appear. This way, we would have to undergo the same scenario again. We would have sacrificed a lot for not beneficial results.
However, the restrictions are essential to prevent the spread of the virus and to keep more people from being infected. But what it comes down to is that we have to wait for a vaccine to know for sure that the virus is going to end. However, the restrictions might have eased the virus’s impact on human life by mitigating its spread. The virus is still there, and it can grow again if not paid adequate care.
To sum up, Coronavirus will only end when a vaccine is developed, and it is likely that by early 2021 a vaccine will be developed. Therefore, the chances for Coronavirus to begin its ending in 2021 are getting higher.
