The coronavirus pandemic continues to wreak havoc on the world. Yes, many countries are gradually coming out of quarantine. However, the World Health Organization is not yet advised to rejoice. On the contrary, it is worth preparing for a new wave of the epidemic in the fall of 2020.
Coronavirus disease caused by Sars-Cov‑2 infection is not fully understood. Therefore, the likelihood of a second wave of the pandemic is very high. Especially in autumn.
The World Health Organization warns that viruses are very active during the cold season. Along with COVID-19, the flu will also return, so a person can catch both diseases, which will only exacerbate the recovery process.
Experts call now to prepare for the second wave of COVID-19: buy ventilators and equip wards for intensive care. The only way to end the pandemic they call a vaccine.
In the United States and other countries, they are already hard at work on the creation of an antiviral drug. True, all developments are at different stages of testing.
According to the director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Anthony Fauci, the effectiveness and safety of one of them will be proven by the first quarter of 2021. However, many doctors consider the release of the vaccine by January too arrogant goal:
Photo: freepik
“For this, everything must go incredibly perfectly,”
explained Dr. Larry Corey, an expert in virology, immunology and vaccine development.
The fact is that the drug must pass a series of safety tests. Usually tests are carried out on animals. If the results are promising, the vaccine is tested in humans in three steps:
- Step 1: A small group of people are given the vaccine to assess safety and immune system response. If everything goes well, the doctors move on to the next step.
- Stage 2. Number In the second stage of the study, the number of participants increases (usually up to a hundred). Here, statistics are already being collected on the impact of the vaccine on different groups of people depending on age and health. The study included people whose characteristics matched those for whom the new vaccine was created.
- Step 3: The effectiveness and safety of the vaccine is tested on thousands or tens of thousands of people. A significantly larger number of participants at this stage helps researchers learn about possible rare side effects of the vaccine.
The story goes that hastily developed and released vaccines do not lead to anything good. They can only aggravate the disease. Therefore, it remains to wait until the scientists conduct all the tests. In the meantime, let’s continue to take precautions against COVID-19.
It should be noted that 27,856 cases of coronavirus disease have already been recorded in Ukraine. Recently, the number of infected per day has been falling, which cannot but rejoice. As of June 9, 394 new infections have been detected in the last 24 hours.
Photo: freepik
Source: moirebenok.ua
