The Vaccine Race

As I am writing this, labs around the globe are trying to create a vaccine to deal with the ever-increasing threat of COVID-19. As the lethality, virility and the severity of this deadly virus increases, governments around the world are working day in, day out to develop the cure.

As The Times stated in their article earlier this week, researchers at the Jenner Institute in Oxford are ready to begin human trials in days. As of yesterday, 78 COVID-19 vaccines are in development, 4 of which have reached the human trials stage. Of these, 2 are based in America, and 2 are in China. Normally, these kind of developments take years. The sheer pace at which these vaccines are being developed is, as you would have heard multiple times already, is unprecedented.

The way in which a vaccine normally works is as follows:

1. A dead or weak version of the virus is injected into the bloodstream.

2. Your immune system detects the antigens of the virus - these are biological markers that can identify the virus.

3. The lymphocytes of your immune system (a form of white blood cell that produces antibodies/antitoxins) use trial and error to find and create an antibody that can quickly combat the virus.

4. These are remembered as some of the lymphocytes are turned into memory cells which are stored in your bone marrow.

5. The next time your body encounters the virus, these memory cells can quickly produce the same antibodies and make sure that you do not experience any severe symptoms this time.

BUT, if your body does not have any prior experience with the virus, and the virus is a fully functioning version, it goes more like this:

1. The virus enters your body through air passages or open wound.

2. It then tries to find a cell to hijack, and injects itself into it.

3. The virus then utilises its RNA to use the cell to replicate itself millions of times over in the cell.

4. Once the virus has replicated millions of times, it ruptures the cell and spreads rapidly. This process repeats until the infectious dose is reached.

5. When this happens, the symptoms of the virus begin to present themselves. This is when people begin to realise they are ill and receive treatment. In this case, this is when people would begin self-isolating.

6. The same process as before occurs - your immune system uses trial and error to combat and neutralise the virus by producing antibodies from lymphocytes.

The process by which our bodies beat viruses is much faster and safer if we have been treated with a vaccine, which is exactly why attaining a vaccine for COVID is just so important and on the highest priority. But in the meantime, whilst scientists are working hard in order to create a vaccine, we must patiently and safely wait, and make sure we take care of ourselves.