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Home > Portable Practical Pediatrics > What Would the Perfect Covid-19 Vaccine Look Like? (Pedcast by Doc Smo and Sonya Corina Williams)
Podcast: Portable Practical Pediatrics
Episode:

What Would the Perfect Covid-19 Vaccine Look Like? (Pedcast by Doc Smo and Sonya Corina Williams)
Category: Kids & family
Duration: 00:17:43
Publish Date: 2020-08-09 06:57:28
Description: Most experts think that the only way out of the Covid-19 Pandemic is a vaccine of which there are currently 165 in development. Ready or not, someday soon, you will have to make a decision about whether to get one of these vaccines. Will you have the knowledge and understanding to make that decision when that time comes?  I certainly hope so and maybe I can help. Stay tuned while and Sonya and I get you up to speed with SARS-CoV-2 vaccine knowledge circa August 2020. Image by Pixabay   Musical Intro Science Drive-How Do Viruses Infect Cells? Before you can understand how a vaccine might work, we need to review briefly how viruses infect their hosts, the child or adult that they wish to use to reproduce. Remember, viruses are parasites, using the people they infect to make copies of themselves before moving onto another victim. The SARS-CoV-2 virus is thought to enter human lining cells of the nose and lungs by attaching its spike protein to receptors on the cell surface -the so called ACE 2 receptors. Once the virus has gained entry into the cytoplasm of the cell, the body of the cell, its RNA  genetic material is released and takes over the cell machinery and starts making new copies of itself. Once finished with that cell, onto  being released from that cell and infecting other cells in its host etc. etc. As you can see, the virus' own RNA serves as the blueprint to hijack the cell into making copies of itself. The virus is going "viral" as we like to say. In order to stop this process from, researchers need to figure out how to stop the virus by doing two things; making "neutralizing antibodies" that block the virus's ability to enter the cell and by activating killer T cells that can destroy already infected cells before they can make viral copies and keep the infection going. What Would The Perfect Vaccine Look Like? Let's start this discussion with imagining what the perfect Covid-19 vaccine would look like? If such a thing could be crafted, what properties would it have? First and foremost, the perfect Covid-19 vaccine would be effective, 100% effective, protecting everyone who gets the shot. It would also need to ensure that those who get the vaccine, will have long-term immunity against the virus. What is long-term you ask, let's say as long as the natural infection protects from reinfection-probably about 2 years. This perfect Covid-19 vaccine also needs to have no serious side effects other than nuisance minor inconveniences like a sore arm or feeling mildly ill briefly. Of course, our perfect Covid-19 vaccine would need to protect people from the natural circulating germ and not heighten their chance of having an exaggerated infection if they should encounter the wild-type germ. Unfortunately, this has happened with previous attempts to create other viral vaccines - RSV and Dengue being the most dramatic examples.  And finally, this perfect Covid-19 vaccine would need to be manufactured quickly, be widely accepted, and be inexpensive enough or free for everyone to be able to afford it.  If we could make this perfect vaccine for COVID-19  and get it widely distributed, it would mean widespread immunity - the answer to the current health crisis we’re in. So why don’t we have one now? For one thing, vaccines have historically taken 10-15 years to create. The fact that there are phase III trials in people happening right now after only 5 months of knowing about this virus is unheard of. This is science at breakneck speed! Currently, it does look like we will have an effective vaccine but I hate to break the news to you... it certainly won't be the perfect vaccine that we just described, but hopefully it will be something close. SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine Basics Even if you haven't been reading extensively about the SARS-CoV-2 virus, you have undoubtedly seen drawings and representations of what the virus looks like, with those ugly spikes sticking out all over the virus.
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