Warning that the first COVID-19 vaccines may be imperfect, the head of the U.K effort to develop a vaccine called Wednesday for immediate international cooperation to prevent the “largest global recession in history.”
U.K. Vaccine Taskforce chair Kate Bingham also warned against over-optimism, saying there is no guarantee a successful vaccine against the novel coronavirus will ever be developed.
“The first generation of vaccines is likely to be imperfect, and we should be prepared that they might not prevent infection, but rather reduce symptoms, and, even then, might not work for everyone or for long,” Bingham wrote in an essay published in The Lancet medical journal.
No vaccine has ever been developed against any coronavirus, and numerous attempts to design vaccines against SARS and MERS, two which are related to the virus that causes COVID-19, have failed. Scientists also warn that immunity against coronaviruses appears to fade over time and that achieving any vaccine-induced immunity to protect against infection or severe disease could be challenging.
Bingham’s comments come as government leaders in Britain and other countries are basing their COVID-19 strategies on expectations of a vaccine becoming available as soon as early next year.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson, for example, has implemented a three-tiered regional strategy aimed at slowing the spread of the disease until there is a vaccine while also minimizing the economic damage from another widespread lockdown.
Meanwhile, coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths in the U.K. and elsewhere in Europe are rising amid a second wave of infections.
Britain created the Vaccine Taskforce earlier this year to speed the development of a vaccine. Two candidates are in late stage trials, with results expected around the end of the year or early 2021. Dozens of other potential vaccines are in earlier stages of development.
But Taskforce chair Bingham said the candidates that have progressed the most in testing are based on new approaches with little history of being used in vaccines. Vaccine candidates based on more frequently used methodologies aren’t likely to be ready until late 2021, she added.
In addition, it will be a challenge to rapidly produce enough vaccines to combat the virus. The global manufacturing capacity is “vastly inadequate for the billions of doses that are needed,” she wrote in The Lancet.
“China, Europe, the USA and the U.K. need to work together,” Bingham wrote. “If we establish international collaboration right now, then we will be better prepared to control future pandemics without causing the largest global recession in history and the biggest threat to lives in living memory.’’
The World Health Organization says it hopes first-generation coronavirus vaccines will have an efficacy rate of at least 70%, but it has acknowledged that 50% might be more realistic. The European Medicines Agency has not specified any minimum efficacy threshold for COVID-19 vaccines and said they would be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
(AP)
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4 Responses
According the US government “vaccines are unavoidably unsafe”. Unfortunately, this is also a tremendous understatement.
Aside from this, there is a growing plethora of research, both independent and government sponsored, that no vaccine actually offers benefits that outweigh risks and side-effects. This can be observed, for example, by the protocol to suggest ‘booster shots’ for many vaccines. This is because vaccines of any type can, at best, only offer ‘acquired immunity’ which is an artificial response of antibody production.
If someone endured the challenge of an ailment or illness they will attain ‘natural immunity’ against it in the future, which is much more of a protection against that same illness.
Regarding the experimental COVID vaccines, none are being adequately tested (no animal testing phase, for example), aside from that typical testing on vaccines is marginal altogether. Additionally, the governments and powers-that-be are encouraging vaccination, but have exonerated all vaccine manufacturers from any damages that might be claimed by well-meaning citizens who allow themselves to actually be vaccinated. There will be a fund for damages, but it will not be administered through open court, and exonerations have already been legislated.
To lastword: I hope your post really is your last word, because it is loaded with errors. Many vaccines have been used for years with great success and very little harm, e.g., vaccines against small pox, polio, measles, mumps, rubella, certain types of pneumonia, shingles and many more.
Smallpox was proven to be caused by the common bedbug. Polio was proven to be caused by arsenic-sulfide pesticides, and also DDT sprays. Measles, Mumps, Rubella are ‘coming-of-age’ ailments that traditionally were allowed to ‘run their course’ which helped a person gain lifelong immunity to them. Pneumonia is the body’s defense mechanism to ‘burn-away’ many germs and toxic matter and can be treated as well, with many other modalities in most cases. Shingles can also be treated without vaccines, and in fact, its high incidence has been attributed in separate independent research to inoculating against chicken-pox which, if allowed to ‘run-its-course’ in childhood, or in early years by most without vaccination, will usually protect an individual against shingles for many years, if not for life as well. (Older people who care for those with chicken-pox are known to gain protection from shingles). The list goes on and there are numerous studies detailing the non-effective, and dangerous status of each and every vaccines. This is because it is a flawed theory and a hoax, as has been stated by several major gedalia and poskim, and should be reiterated by many others as well–if only we would study these matters more carefully.
CORRECTED:
Smallpox was proven to be caused by the common bedbug. Polio was proven to be caused by arsenic-sulfide pesticides, and also DDT sprays. Measles, Mumps, Rubella are ‘coming-of-age’ ailments that traditionally were allowed to ‘run their course’ which helped a person gain lifelong immunity to them. Pneumonia is the body’s defense mechanism to ‘burn-away’ many germs and toxic matter and can be treated as well, with many other modalities in most cases. Shingles can also be treated without vaccines, and in fact, its high incidence has been attributed in separate independent research to inoculating against chicken-pox which, if allowed to ‘run-its-course’ in childhood, or in early years by most without vaccination, will usually protect an individual against shingles for many years, if not for life as well. (Older people who care for those with chicken-pox are known to gain protection from shingles). The list goes on and there are numerous studies detailing the non-effective, and dangerous status of each and every vaccine. This is because it is a flawed theory and a hoax, as has been stated by several major gedolim and poskim, and should be reiterated by many others as well–if only we would study these matters more carefully.