The COVID-19 pandemic, also referred to as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing 2019 coronavirus disease pandemic (COVID-19) triggered by the transmission of coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) extreme acute respiratory syndrome, which was first detected in Wuhan, China in December 2019. In January 2020, the outbreak was declared a public health emergency of international significance, and in March 2020, a pandemic.
January 22, 2020 is the day where a suspected covid case arrived in the Philippines, many people are unaware of the kind of virus even specialists are trying their best to contain this outbreak. March 1, 2020 there are 663 suspected covid case reported in the Philippines and the second week of March quarantine are being implemented in the our country as time goes by many cases have been reported in Manila and eventually there are local transmission reported everywhere and the economy is slowly collapsing because of the (ECQ) Enhanced community Quarantined many business are closed temporarily and some are close for good.
Scientists discover vaccines to help people and to continue the economy of each country. There are 6 companies racing to mass produce a coronavirus vaccine this are Novavax, Astrazeneca, johnson and johnson, Sanofi and Glaxosmithkline, moderna, and pfizer and biontech.
Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX), a small-cap vaccine biotech, has gained production capacity for 2.75 billion doses of its vaccine candidate, NVX-CoV2373. Praha Vaccines and its manufacturing facility in the Czech Republic were purchased by the biotech in May. The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is a viral vector vaccine that is also known as ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 or AZD1222. Scientists modified an adenovirus that was originally derived from chimps in order to train the immune system to mount a strong response to SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19).Janssen Pharmaceuticals, a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary, developed the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine, which is a human adenovirus viral vector vaccine. Sanofi is producing the vaccine candidate itself, while GlaxoSmithKline is adding an adjuvant that should enhance immune response. The two companies plan to manufacture up to 1 billion doses of vaccine a year, internally and through external CMO agreements. The Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, codenamed mRNA-1273, is a COVID-19 vaccine developed by the United States National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, and Moderna. Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) is collaborating with German company BioNTech (NASDAQ:BNTX) to develop a COVID-19 vaccine candidate. Like Moderna, the two companies are focused on an mRNA vaccine. That could have serious distribution challenges.
Vaccines mimic the virus or bacteria that causes disease and triggers the body’s creation of antibodies. These antibodies will provide protection once a person is infected with the actual disease causing virus or bacteria.
The most awaited vaccines have already arrived here in the Philippines last February 28, 2021. China’s SinovacBiotech was the first vaccine that was received by our country to treat us against this Covid-19. According to Harry Roque “There is light at the end of the tunnel. That is light at the end of the tunnel”. These vaccines will be the answer to all our prayers, but there are still a lot of doubts if it will be really the solutions to all our problems. Since there are also a lot of side effects shown to other people that have been injected. They are now starting to inject the vaccines according to the priority list that has been given. The priority groups are the Frontline health workers, seniors’ citizens, indigent population and the uniformed personnel. The priority list is categorized because of the initial limited supply, frontline health workers and uniformed personnel are prioritized since they have higher risk of exposure while on duty and to allow them to continue fulfilling their duties.
As an individual, I have also doubt and fear about these vaccines, because there is also news that shows about the side effects that happened to the individuals that got vaccinated. Some have died, other people have some allergies and some patients have worsened their case. However as time goes by I have been convinced that I should give it a try and be vaccinated to protect myself from this virus. Same as with other people, I hope this vaccine will help us and it turns out well. I still have worries about the side effects of these vaccines but I just hope and pray that everything will go back to normal after this and that vaccines will help us to clear our vision for the future.
Indeed after one year of fighting this pandemic, we are already foreseeing the end of all of these. Everyone around the globe experienced hardships and hurdles. Other people got jobless, the economy collapsed, the students are struggling with their online classes and some businesses got closed for good. But still here we are hoping for the day that we can finally go back to our daily lives and hoping that these vaccines will help us and may it turn out to be a great success.