COVID-19: Vaccines!!

In order to help the public better understand the virus, I would like to keep the scientific terminology and the vocabulary simple. I am not a doctor or scientist.

The world has hit a bad milestone. Now that we have had over 3 million coronavirus cases, you must be wondering why we haven't found a vaccine. Vaccine; A magical thing which can stop the deadly virus. But what does it exactly do? what exactly does it look like? you might have a million questions about it. Let's see if I can answer some questions.

Think of coronavirus or any other disease causing virus as an exam. The hardest one in your life, if you may. In order to pass this or survive this exam you must study. But that is not enough right? You need to take a mock test. An outline of what the real exam will look like. Without that, you might not be able to ace it or even score the passing marks. So here, the mock test is the vaccine. Our body has defence system which stands guard at all times to see if there are some outsiders trying to break in and this system needs to know in advance how the virus might look like and face it, without paying the price of failing. So that once it faces the real exam(virus), it is prepared. It has everything set to go! But, how does one achieve this in terms of body' defence system? Just like the mock test, we introduce mock virus or the inactivated ones which have no power to fail you, into your body. Now see this as questions from a mock test. If you don't know the answer to a mock test, you go home and read about it, may be tackle it. And when the real exam comes, you will know exactly how to crack it and if not, you will atleast have a good start.

But hold on, are you now thinking about the time you got the vaccine and still got the flu?

Now, just because we gave you a mock test, doesn't mean that you actually went home and prepared for it right? In the same way, some of us might not have a great defense system. We might need more than just a mock test. In the same way, the virus(or the exam) can also be different. Remember how virus works? If not, check out my previous post here. And the test might not help you ace the exam sometimes but it is always good to prepare your body. Instead of failing the test, you will atleast get a B.

How can the same virus be different?

Since they are small organisms and just have the manager(DNA/RNA) to pass on, they replicate, as in give birth to next generation very quickly, not like us humans where we have to wait 9 months for a baby.

We are different from our parents and they are different from their parents. Your parent's clothes might not fit you and you might be different looking than them. Same applies for the virus. By the time researchers find something for a generation, the virus would have moved on to nth generation and that might not work. So how do we try to make sure we get the right vaccine to kill them all?

Even though, you are different from your parents, you have some similarities, let's say some of us might have the same nose or same set of eyes. Researchers spend a lot of time looking at these similarities. Like the blonde hair which stayed in the family for generations or that nose structure. However, with viruses, finding these features are a lot harder. First of all, they are not visible to the naked eye and then you have to make sure you don't get the virus. And then, we need to make sure we provide the suitable environment for them, similar to one in the body so that we fool the virus. There are so many steps and so many precautions one need to take.

Even after finding a solution, you need to test it in order to see how it works. You can't take 100 mock tests and think I will ace it. You might be completely drained. One needs to optimize the number of mock tests one should take, in order to maximize efficiency. You also need to match the level of difficulty to the real test. In the same way, researchers need to find out quantity that works best, the number of times a vaccine needs to be given and many other things. This can only be done by testing and cannot be decided randomly. After all, it is the matter of human life. Even if this seems easy, it is a lot harder when it comes to a deadly virus.

Things might seem really overwhelming right now, but remember that human race have fought and won many battles and this one is no different. In my next post, I will talk about coronavirus curves and what does it mean to flatten it! Remember to stay home and stay safe.