Dr. Catherine O’Brien, responsible for vaccines and immunity at the World Health Organization, said that the world has witnessed a rapid development of Covid-19 vaccines over the past two years, noting that there is a full set of vaccines, under research and development, that will be used to combat germs and viruses other than the emerging corona virus.
In the 70th episode of the “Science in Five” program, presented by Vismita Gupta Smith, and broadcast by the World Health Organization on its official accounts on communication platforms, Dr. O’Brien explained that the group of vaccines, under development, falls under two categories, the first being vaccines against viruses and germs that do not It currently has vaccinations, such as the vaccine against respiratory syncytial virus, which is one of the most common causes of serious lung disease in young children and infants, and which comes in waves on a yearly basis in nearly every country around the world.
There is also another new vaccine, which has not been produced yet, which is a vaccine against a germ that causes very dangerous infections in young children and leads to deaths among them, which is the group “B streptococcus” GBS. This is clearly an important goal for preventing meningitis in infants and protecting the lives of newborns. Dr. O’Brien added that there are also vaccines still being researched, such as the vaccine against HIV.
second generation covid vaccines
Dr. O’Brien added that the second category is the already available vaccines, but scientists are seeking to improve them, noting that this category, which is taken very seriously, includes second-generation tuberculosis vaccines, in addition to influenza vaccines.
Of course, second-generation COVID-19 vaccines are in development as well.
On the possibility of implementing what was called the “fast-track process”, which Dr. O’Brien described as an unprecedented term that appeared in line with the process of developing anti-Covid-19 vaccines at a rapid pace, explaining that it is necessarily expected that the pace of development of the rest of the vaccines will go as fast as the Covid vaccines were. -19, for several reasons, the first of which is that the whole world was enthusiastic about the development of COVID-19 vaccines, and then there was complete coordination and cooperation.
On the practical level, every laboratory, researcher and scientist was seeking to develop vaccines, whether at the level of companies that manufacture vaccines, or academics and other research institutes, which is usually not available for the development and production of other vaccines.
expressive
Huge financing and infrastructure
Dr. O’Brien stated that the second reason is that the amount of funding that is being allocated to developing vaccines has been enormous and unprecedented in relation to the status of developing vaccines against the emerging corona virus.
She added that the third reason is the existence of an infrastructure for clinical trials around the world, which was used and transferred to the development of the Covid-19 vaccine, so there was really a single goal that everyone sought to achieve, so it is not expected that the same conditions will exist for the development and production of other vaccines with the same Speed approx.
But Dr. O’Brien believes that because of all the different ways that clinical development of vaccines has happened during the Covid pandemic, people are really learning the lessons and looking at the steps, which can be shortened or taken in parallel, so that they can reduce the time and effort and investment actually to make some of these available. Life-saving vaccines.
Vaccines on the shelves
In this context, Dr. O’Brien explained that it is common to say that vaccines do not save lives, but that what saves lives is getting them. Thus, a vaccine is not really useful if it has been shelved and has not already been published. Dr. O’Brien attributed the reasons for not obtaining vaccinations, despite their availability, to the fact that there are shortcomings with regard to the ease of access to services, such as the availability of nearby centers and quick procedures, making it easier for people, especially working mothers, to take their young children or adolescents to obtain vaccination, The same applies to the elderly.
wrong information
Dr. O’Brien revealed that there are still some numbers, which she identified as very few, that are still opposed to obtaining vaccinations, affected by some of the misinformation that has grown to their knowledge and affected their decisions, in addition to another group hesitant about obtaining vaccinations, and who may have some questions about the extent The safety of receiving vaccine doses and how they work, stressing that there is a lot of misinformation circulating among the public about exactly what vaccines do.
Dr. O’Brien explained that vaccines stimulate the human body’s natural immune system to develop protection against the germs it is already vaccinated against, so when it is exposed to that germ in real life in the future, the body already has defenses to protect against.