What was the most important tool in order to win the race against COVID-19?
- Undoubtedly, the creation of COVID-19’s vaccine has been our most important and essential tool to face the virus spreading. It is our only way out. A variety of laboratories have achieved the goal to create a vaccine in time against them. Throughout covid-19, the entire society has experimented with fallouts of being cooped for months in their homes, and this creation will bring new opportunities but does not change the fact that we have changed our way to live and possibly forever. (2) Certainly, life depends on science founding, and in the future, we need to invest in technology for further creations with a strong scientific base that we will need, as we prepare to compete as a country well developed and strong. (3) Tracking who receives vaccines is essential but will be impossible without innovations in digital technologies, along with social media, offering an opportunity that could aid the global public-health community in vaccinating every person. One of the biggest needs is for tracking, secure digital identification systems that can store a person’s medical history, and that can be accessed even in places without reliable electricity, indeed technology has already accomplished that. (4) Vaccines are safe enough to protect people, and fortunately, governments all over the world had invested in the rapid development of vaccines against this disease. (5) People are getting easier and quickly vaccinated thanks to the websites and online webs to make appointments and do not risk their time in loose a chance to immunize themselves.
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- (1) Official Public Service Announcement on Coronavirus from the World Health Organization.
- (2) CBC NEWS: https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-58965036
- (3)Nature551, 273 : https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-017-05923-8
- (4) O’Callaghan KP, Blatz AM, Offit PA. Developing a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine at warp speed. 2020;324(5):437-438Huang AT, Garcia-Carreras B, Hitchings MDT, et al. A systematic review of antibody-mediated immunity to coronaviruses: antibody kinetics, correlates of protection, and association of antibody responses with the severity of the disease. medRxiv. Preprint posted April 17, 2020. doi:10.1101/2020.04.14.20065771
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2772138 - (5) Organization for EconomicCo-operation and Development, Vaccines (HS code 300220) are covered by the 1994 WTO Pharma Agreement : https://www.oecd.org/coronavirus/policy-responses/coronavirus-covid-19-vaccines-for-developing-countries-an-equal-shot-at-recovery-6b0771e6/
Hey Andrea, cool post, you really couldn’t have chosen a more relevant topic! One of the biggest hurdles we face right now in relation with COVID is getting the whole world vaccinated. While rich countries, such as Canada and the United States of America, have very high vaccination rates and have even started administering booster shots, many poor/under-developed countries are falling behind. Even though programs that provide said countries with COVID vaccines free of charge do exist, they are not well enough funded or supplied to vaccinate a large number of people. This should most definitely be a focal point for developed countries around the world, as the COVID pandemic will be truly resolved until the whole world is immunized. Good work!
Hi Andrea!
I enjoyed reading your third blog post about a very interesting topic that is related to the world’s biggest problem we suffer from today. When first the covid-19 vaccine came out, I was scared and worried since the vaccine didn’t take a long time to develop. However I have my second dose and I’m doing pretty fine! I love how you mentioned that using technology can also be a useful tool to compete against other countries. Good job!