COVID-19 Who Approved Vaccines

Initially, a bunch of cases were reported on 31 December 2019. However, according to Chinese authorities, the first case of Covid-19 was reported on 7 January 2020. In the year 2020, a lot of companies start preparing vaccines to cure Covid-19.

At the start, there was no specific treatment for Covid-19 patients that can cure them of this deadly virus that is very dangerous for all especially people aged above 35yrs.

So many countries start working on their vaccine and many times, some countries announced that they have succeeded in making vaccines for      Covid-19 but during clinical trials, many side effects were detected. 

On December 11, 2020 emergency use authorizations of Pfizer corona vaccine were allowed for clinical trials so that it should be observed what could be side effects on people getting vaccinated.

There are many companies and researchers still working on vaccines and many are under development but among all of the four of the best vaccines, are approved by the world health organization and the FDA.

After success in clinical trials companies, start selling these vaccines all over the world but before getting the vaccines WHO define some guidelines on how to use them and how to distribute them, and what arrangements are needed before their use.

 

Approved Vaccines for Covid-19

There are many vaccines, that different countries are using, but we will discuss the four best among them

1. AstraZeneca 

2. Comirnaty

3. Moderna

4. Sputnik V

AstraZeneca 

AstraZeneca is a COVID-19 Vaccine also known as Covishield is an Adenovirus vaccine and is initially developed by BARDA, OWS that is located in the UK and it is used by different countries Argentina, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Brazil, Chile, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Hungary, India, Iraq, Mexico, Morocco, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Thailand, UK, Vietnam. AstraZeneca vaccine may prevent infection as well as disease.

According to AstraZeneca, early data indicates that it is 70% effective and on average, at preventing coronavirus. Transforming the typical vaccine dosage protocol that increased its effectiveness to 90% that is based on phase 3 trial results, the vaccine also appears to reduce the spread of the virus, as determined by a reduction in the number of asymptomatic infections.

This vaccine has an advantage over the mRNA vaccines in that it only requires refrigeration for storage. It is less expensive compared to others. 

 

Comirnaty

Comirnaty is an mRNA-based vaccine developed by Pfizer BioNTech. It is used by different countries like Albania, Argentina, Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Faroe Islands, Greenland, Iceland, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Mexico, Norway, Oman, Panama, Philippines, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Singapore, Switzerland, UAE, UK, USA, and European Union.

Comirnaty contains a molecule called messenger mRNA with instructions for producing a protein from SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Comirnaty does not contain the virus itself and cannot cause COVID-19. 

As Comirnaty received conditional marketing authorization, the company that markets Comirnaty will continue to provide results from the main trail, which is ongoing for 2 years. This trial and additional studies will provide information on how long protection lasts, how well the vaccine prevents severe COVID-19, how well it protects people, children, and pregnant women, and whether it prevents asymptomatic cases.

They will also carry out studies to provide additional assurance on the pharmaceutical quality of the vaccine as the manufacturing continues to be scaled up.

Moderna 

Moderna is an mRNA-based vaccine, it is developed by American companies, and countries like Canada, the EU, the Faroe Islands, France, Greenland, Iceland, Israel, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the USA have started using it.

 It was observed that in clinical trials, psychological symptoms were common but were mostly smooth to moderate.

When a person is given the vaccine, some of their cells will read the mRNA instructions and temporarily produce the spike protein. 

The person’s immune system will then recognize this protein as foreign, produce antibodies, and activate white blood cells to attack it. If, later on, the person meets the SARS-CoV-2 virus, their immune system will recognize it and be ready to defend the body against it. 

The mRNA from the vaccine does not stay in the body but is broken down shortly after vaccination.

 

Sputnik V

Sputnik V is developed by Russia and is the world’s first registered vaccine based on a well-studied human Adenoviral vector-based platform. Sputnik V is used in different countries like Algeria, Argentina, Armenia, Belarus, Bolivia, Guinea, Hungary, Iran, Mexico, Pakistan, Palestine, Paraguay, Russia, Serbia, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, and UAE. Sputnik V is one of the vaccines in the world with an efficacy of over 90%.

The Vaccine’s efficacy is confirmed at 91.6% based on the analysis of data from, those who received both the first and second doses of this vaccine. The vaccine is named after the first Soviet space satellite. The launch of Sputnik-1 in 1957 reinvigorated space research around the world, creating a so-called Sputnik moment for the global community. 

After the start of the Covid-19, Russian researchers extracted a fragment of genetic material from the novel Coronavirus SARS-COV-2, which codes information about the structure of the spike S-protein, which forms the virus crown and is responsible for connection with human cells.

They inserted it into a familiar adenovirus vector for delivery into a human cell creating the world’s first COVID-19 vaccine. To ensure lasting immunity Russian scientists came up with a breakthrough idea to use two different types of Adenovirus vectors for the first and second vaccination, boosting the effect of the vaccine.

The use of human Adenoviruses as vectors is safe because these viruses, which cause the common cold, have been around for thousands of years.