Hundreds of Companies Testing COVID-19 Vaccines

9/1/2020

Avani Lakkireddy

By Avani Lakkireddy
Hundreds of pharmaceutical and biotech companies are rushing to develop and receive approval of a COVID-19 vaccine, but many worry that this rapid testing will do more harm than good.

More than 50 medical groups have started to produce COVID-19 vaccines. Though many are in the preclinical stages, where scientists test the vaccines on different animals, some have already taken jumps to phases two and three. These final phases are the portions of the testing process where the vaccine is used on hundreds then eventually thousands of people. For example, a Chinese company, Sinovac, has recently produced a vaccine that has been approved for limited use by governments in both China and Indonesia. This, however, points out larger problems with the vaccine industry as a whole, as Sinovac still hasn’t fully completed phase three of trials.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), said in a statement that, “safe and effective vaccines will be essential to meet the global need for widespread protection against COVID-19.” But without proper testing, vaccine manufacturers may give people a false sense of security by making baseless claims that their vaccine prevents COVID-19.

Operation Warp Speed, a multiagency pact to introduce 300 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine by January 2021, has companies around the world scrambling to get through the first three stages of testing and go straight for approval of limited dosages. A Russian company, Gamaleya, is a prime example, as it had already approved the vaccine for use before phase three had even been conducted. Faced with harsh backlash from medical professionals, Russia quickly rescinded this announcement.

Currently, One of the most promising vaccines is a joint project between British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and scientists at the University of Oxford. A preclinical study published in the journal Nature found that the vaccine, AZD1222, prevented symptoms and transmission of the novel coronavirus in the rhesus macaque and mice. This success allowed scientists to start phase one and phase two trials, where they tested the vaccine on a few hundred people. The vaccine showed preliminary results that it was effective against COVID-19.

AZD1222 has now moved to phase three, where researchers will conduct tests on more than 30,000 people worldwide. Around 20,000 adults will be given one dose of the vaccine, while another 10,000 will be given a saline-based placebo.

Even with the development of new vaccines, COVID-19 is still a rapidly evolving disease, which needs proper time and care to be treated safely and effectively. People should not celebrate just yet, but the future looks significantly brighter now that a vaccine for COVID-19 is on the horizon.

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Ms. Scott is an expert in communications, both spoken and written. Besides leading the staff of student journalists at B-Line, she teaches Advanced Debate and middle school Introduction to Debate, International Studies and Current Events.

She attended high school in the Wichita area where she occupied herself with debate and writing. Ms. Scott obtained her degree in secondary education (speech/ theatre) with a minor in communication studies from Kansas State University. She received her master’s degree in communication from Baylor University in 2018.

She believes every student should be a capable communicator and self-advocate shaping their own future. She finds that both mass communication settings like B-Line and rhetorical settings like debate prepare students for their future.