HOW SAFE IS COVID VACCINE? COVID-19 VACCINE UPDATES
WHO has announced that there are 223 countries battling 111 102 016 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 2,462 911 confirmed deaths1. The best task is to examine a COVID-19 vaccine to protect families and the economic situation. It is "light at the end of the tunnel" since we realize there are six top COVID-19 vaccine applicants.
Two of the top vaccines, Pfizer-BioNTECH and Moderna, were given "emergency use authorizations" in December 2020 and the Astrazeneca-Oxford vaccine required early global authorization, including the WHO emergency listing2. In the first case, 42 nations, including the United Kingdom, purchased the 300 million Astrazeneca vaccine, which is the only one of the three to agree not to make a profit from the vaccine.
One hundred and fifty thousand doses of Astrazeneca-Oxford vaccine were landed in Mongolia, and vaccination began today (23.02.2021) precisely after the end of the third lockdown3. Early reports on this vaccine indicate that 70 per cent is successful in preventing COVID-19 on average. Altering the standard dosage regimen of the vaccine improved the efficacy to 90%4. Based on the results of the Phase III trial, the vaccine also tends to limit the virus transmission, as measured by a decrease in the number of asymptomatic infections. It is only requiring refrigeration for storage and also costs less.
Vaccination efforts in South Korea and Malaysia are both expected to launch this week, while Australia and New Zealand have begun their vaccination drives over the weekend. China and Russia, who created their own vaccines, have continued to vaccinate a greater proportion of their populations than most of their geographic neighbors. But at a rate of 2-3 doses administered per 100 individuals, campaigns are still only in the early stages. Among those that launch campaigns later are Thailand and Vietnam, with few cases of COVID-19, and the Philippines, one of the most affected countries in the region, with more than 560,000 combined cases5.
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1. 'Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) – World Health Organization' (Who.int, 2021) <https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019> accessed 23 February 2021.
2. 'Here's How the Top 3 Coronavirus Vaccines Compare When It Comes to Efficacy, Cost, And More' (Business Insider, 2021) <https://www.businessinsider.com/how-covid-vaccines-compare-cost-astrazeneca-oxford-pfizer-biontech-moderna-2020-11> accessed 23 February 2021.
3. 'Эхний Ээлжийн 150 Мянган Тун Английн Оксфордын "Астразенека" Вакциныг Татаж Авлаа' (Zasag.mn, 2021) <https://zasag.mn/news/view/25751> accessed 23 February 2021.
4. (2021) <https://www.healthgrades.com/right-care/vaccines/the-most-promising-covid-19-vaccine-candidates> accessed 23 February 2021.
5. Katharina Buchholz, 'Infographic: How Have COVID-19 Vaccinations Progressed in Asia?' (Statista Infographics, 2021) <https://www.statista.com/chart/24246/covid-vaccination-progress-asia/> accessed 23 February 2021.