Production: Pablo Cantudo
Several steps are required to develop a vaccine, which are unavoidable to ensure its safety and effectiveness. First you have to identify the antigens, the substances that elicit an immune response. Second, various tests are carried out to select the most suitable antigens. Then, once the vaccine is made, human trials begin, in several phases. Phase 1 tests it on dozens of people; phase 2, in thousands of people; and phase 3, in tens of thousands of people. Finally, comes the longest phase: the development of quality controls, and a scientific dossier that is sent to the authorities that have to allow the vaccine to be marketed.
But the manufacture of the COVID-19 vaccine is turning out to be a frantic race, in which only a few months have elapsed. Is there a way to speed things up? Drug agencies are allowing some of these phases to overlap, in order to have the vaccine available as soon as possible; yes, without skipping any step, since the authorities must provide adequate protection and be one hundred percent safe. No vaccine could be approved without complying with all the steps rigorously.
As soon as any of the vaccines being developed completes all phases, it is ready to be applied to the general population. Now, who will be the first? Will there be vaccines for everyone?
The fact that there is so much diversity in the manufacture of vaccines is an advantage, since immunity is different according to the population group; for example, the immune response is not the same in children and the elderly as in adults. In addition, having multiple vaccines will ensure that we have supplies globally.
And who will get the vaccine first? The logical thing is to think that people with depressed immune systems and people over 65 years old, that is, those most at risk of suffering serious complications, should be in the first row, as well as health personnel. The WHO, for its part, suggests that countries receive doses proportional to their populations. But a group of 19 world health experts differ on both approaches, and consider that the most timely strategy is to reduce premature deaths. His proposal was published the first week of September in the journal Science , and is called the Fair Priority Model.
According to this document, the vaccine should be distributed according to the severity of suffering, and the main measure of suffering should be the number of premature deaths that a vaccine would prevent, that is, taking into account the expected years of life lost.
In addition, they add that preferentially immunizing health workers, who already have access to personal protective equipment and other advanced methods of preventing infectious diseases, would probably not substantially reduce the damage in higher-income countries. And they argue that in lower-income countries there are fewer people over 65 and at risk of comorbidities.
