IS IT SAFE? WILL IT WORK?

AS 2020 DRAWS TO A CLOSE, there is little doubt that it will be regarded as an Annus Horribilis. Not just because of the toll the Covid-19 pandemic took on lives (64 million infected worldwide and 1.4 million dead) but also due to the devastation it caused to livelihoods, plunging the world into an economic trough not seen since the Great Depression. Yet, by the end of the year, amidst all the gloom, there emerged a silver lining that could yet make 2020 an Annus Mirabilis, thanks to the exciting development of vaccines to combat the pandemic.

Vaccines against diseases normally take years, if not decades, to develop. Not anymore. In a major breakthrough, on December 2, just nine months after the World Health Organization (WHO) had declared the Corona-virus disease or Covid-19 a pandemic, the United Kingdom cleared a vaccine developed by US pharma giant Pfizer in collaboration with German firm BioNTech SE for emergency use. Meanwhile, Pfizer, along with Moderna, a US-based bio-tech firm, which has develo - ped a vaccine of its own, applied for an Emergency Use Authorisation certificate with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), America’s health regulatory body. Both applicants claimed an effectiveness of treating the disease way above the 50 per cent stipulated by the FDA.

Two candidates in a neck and neck race to defeat a disease would normally be considered an embarrassment of riches in the vaccine business. But the pandemic seems to have triggered an unprecedented burst of innovation in vaccinology with another half a dozen vaccines being readied to compete with the frontrunners. Among them is British pharma giant, AstraZeneca, which, in collaboration with Oxford University and the Serum Institute, an Indian firm, has completed the final phase of trials for its vaccine in five countries, including India, reporting a high success rate against the infection. Meanwhile, Russia’s Sputnik-V, developed by