Triumph for science

The speed record of Covid-19 vaccine launches is extraordinary

The pandemic delivered a rude shock, highlighting the gaps in the geopolitical system which have led to uncoordinated and contraindicated policy responses. As a result, there have been millions of infections and deaths. However, the response to Covid-19 has been a triumph for science. Recent advances in genome sequencing, gene-editing, and RNA vaccine creation have allowed for a rapid roll-out of new vaccines. Thousands of scientists and the global health care community have cooperated by sharing data and insights. For context, the human genome was sequenced in 2003, as the culmination of a project launched in 1990. The SARS-CoV-2 genome was sequenced in just four days. Again, for context, most vaccines take about a decade from the first experiment to public launch. The “speed record” used to be held by the Jeryl Lynn mumps vaccine, which was launched in four years. But within six months of the declaration of the pandemic, a dozen vaccine candidates were on trial. Now, over 350 million doses have been administered.

This was primarily possible due to very rapid progress in bioscience. Vaccines trigger natural defence mechanisms. This is normally done by introducing weakened or dead viruses (or bacteria, as the case may be) into the body. The immune system recognises the alien danger and creates antibodies, which protect it from a live virus. Killing or weakening a virus is a long, dangerous process. Vaccine creation can be shortened drastically via the Messenger RNA method. The immune system recognises the shapes of specific proteins associated with a virus and embeds instructions to create antibodies whenever those proteins are visible. Messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines work by creating only the specific recognisable proteins, which trigger an immune response. The mRNA method is not only much quicker; it doesn’t expose patients to the actual virus.

Creating mRNA vaccines is only possible due to 21st century gene-editing and gene-sequencing techniques. CRISPR gene-editing, for instance, was developed after 2007. In addition to vaccine creation, researchers tested known drugs (the advantage being that side effects are also known) to test for possible efficacy. They learnt how to deal clinically with typical symptoms, and how to suppress “cytokine storms” where the body damages itself by an overenthusiastic defensive response. Those bits of learning have also reduced mortality rates. There is plenty that is not known about Covid-19, including its origins. Even the longevity of protection conveyed by various vaccines is not fully documented yet. On the policy front, the current wrangling over intellectual property rights could lead to unequal access. And, of course, the responses of different health care systems and different political leaderships have been effective or ineffective, to different degrees.

It took eight million years for a common ancestral ape to mutate into the related but very different species of chimpanzees and humans. A virus undergoes the same amount of mutation in a week. It is possible that Covid-19 will not be eradicated and will continue to mutate, necessitating the development of vaccines every so often as is the case with flu. It is also likely yet another new and deadly virus will emerge sometime soon. The global scientific community will probably be up to the task of handling such challenges, given the experience of the past 15 months. It is policymakers around the world who need to introspect and institutionalise the learning from this crisis.