With the recent development of the global pandemic known as the Coronavirus, or COVID-19, much has been done throughout the world to slow the spread of the virus through quarantining and closing down any places where people could conglomerate and potentially infect others. With so many places of business closed and so much fear and anxiety about the presence of the disease, creating a vaccine against the Coronavirus has been one of the USA’s top priorities, with testing being fast tracked due to the emergency situation at hand.
BCG Vaccination Studies
Investigations have begun to look at an older vaccine, called the BCG vaccine, that was used worldwide in about “4 billion individuals globally”, according to Anthony King at The Scientist. The Bacille Calmette-Cuérin vaccine was named after the two French scientists who created it, and contains “weakened strain” of virus, very similar to the one that causes tuberculosis, a highly contagious lung disease. The vaccine was seen to increase immunity to other diseases in the populations that received it, according to King, so research is being done to test its usefulness in the struggle against the Coronavirus.
The BCG vaccine is being looked into because its anti-viral properties could have an effect on the Coronavirus. A study was done, comparing “countries that mandated BCG vaccination at least until 2000 with to countries that did not” (Berg et al, 2), and found that there was a difference in the rate of new cases developing and in the death rates between the two groups. The study suggests that the BCG vaccine could help in the fight against the Coronavirus. King mentions however that these studies done “show statistical correlation, not cause and effect”, so there could potentially be an unknown third variable in the countries that had universal use of the BCG vaccine. WHO, the World Health Organization has put out a statement saying that so far there’s “no evidence that the Bacille Calmette- Guérin vaccine (BCG) protects people against infection with COVID-19 virus”, however they have also mentioned that clinical trials to test the theory are underway, although no information about the results is available as of yet.
Moderna Study
There is some hope for a Coronavirus vaccine aside from the BCG vaccine, in Moderna’s mRNA-1273, which has reportedly seen good progress. The study gave three different groups of participants different dose levels of the vaccine, at 25, 100 and 250 micrograms, and antibodies were seen in all groups after 15 days, according to The Salt Lake Tribune. The report from Moderna itself states that the number of antibodies seen in the 25 µg group only 2 weeks after the second dose was equal to the amount of antibodies seen in recovered COVID patients. The vaccine also seemed to be well tolerated among the groups, with the only instances of adverse reactions in the 25 and 100 groups being three people with flu-like symptoms, who recovered, and one case of redness around the injection site (Hussey, Moderna). These results look very promising and could develop further with the clinical trial to lead to a functional vaccine.
There is a distinction to be made here, however, because while the receivers of the mRNA-1273 vaccine were seen to be stimulating the creation of antibodies, they were only tested for the formation of a certain type of antibody, namely the binding ones. Binding antibodies are an important part of the immune system in that they surround the antigens, or infectious agent, to tell the white blood cells which ones they need to destroy. This function is very important, but they do not aid in the prevention of disease, as the “neutralizing antibodies” mentioned by Larson at the Salt Lake Tribune, do. However, Larson does mention that in the few participants who were also tested for the neutralizing antibodies, they were seen to have amounts that matched the amount of binding antibodies present. This seems promising but the sample was small so the results are not definitive.
The study does hope to move on to phase 2, with larger sample sizes and no more 250 groups, as “the smaller doses seem to work well enough” (Larson). Some people foresee some potential setbacks in the future, however, because the vaccine is an RNA vaccine, and there’s never been an RNA vaccine approved by the FDA for use in humans, so given its unprecedented nature there could be some issues.
Oxford Study
Another study being done on a Coronavirus vaccine at Oxford University saw some progress with some test injections of their vaccine into monkeys. The study was on two different groups with three monkeys each. One group was given the vaccine and one was not, but both were exposed to the virus. The group with the vaccine saw no cases of pneumonia, whereas the group without it saw two cases. This looks like some improvement, as reducing the effects of the virus could increase its survivability, however, both groups still tested positive to the disease, which means they still got infected, even with the vaccine. It seems to be that they didn't have enough antibodies to prevent disease, but rather just to make the virus nonlethal. This could still potentially be useful in creating a “herd immunity”, as Larson has dubbed it, to protect against the virus even when people are carriers and spread it asymptomatically.
With the worldwide outbreak of such a dangerous disease, work is being done everywhere around the world to fight this disease and save lives, and these efforts are not fruitless, as we can see progress being made in so many places. With recent developments seen and the continued efforts to fight the disease and come up with a vaccine, there is no doubt that we will find a way to make the world safe from Coronavirus eventually.
King , Anthony. “An Old TB Vaccine Finds New Life in Coronavirus Trials.” The Scientist , The Scientists , 4 May 2020, www.google.com/amp/s/www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/an-old-tb-vaccine-finds-new-life-in-coronavirus-trials-67504/amp.
“Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) Vaccination and COVID-19.” World Health Organization, World Health Organization, 12 Apr. 2020, www.who.int/news-room/commentaries/detail/bacille-calmette-gu%C3%A9rin-%28bcg%29-vaccination-and-covid-19.
Larsen, Andy. “The Recent Good, OK, and Intriguing News about Coronavirus Vaccines.” The Salt Lake Tribune, 20 May 2020, www.sltrib.com/news/2020/05/20/recent-good-ok/.
Berg , Martha, et al. Mandated Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) Vaccination Predicts Flattened Curves for the Spread of COVID-19 . University of Michigan , 14 May 2020, www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.05.20054163v4.full.pdf.
Comments