Notes from the Trenches (31)

Article source: ConstructConnect

• Concerning COVID-19, possibly the best to be hoped for over the next many months will be the emergence of ‘herd immunity’. ‘Herd immunity’ will occur when approximately two-thirds of the population has been in contact with the coronavirus, creating enough antibody protection to severely slow its spread. Nevertheless, that will still leave one-third living under the sword of Damocles. Randomly, someday, somewhere, somehow, they may be touched by COVID-19 with possibly dire consequences. At least, that will be case until an effective vaccine has been created.

• This is where the science becomes fascinating, but also complicated. Apparently, there may be development of several different makes and models of COVID-19 vaccine. A standard vaccine uses a weakened version of the offending virus to prod a body into launching an overwhelming defense posture. A new ‘platform’ approach, with a shorter testing and approvals span, modifies a known closely related virus ‒ maybe even from the animal kingdom, since there are untold numbers of viruses with an incredible diversity of characteristics ‒ to become a harmless copycat of the latest interloper, in order to engage the body’s immune system and set in place a rapid deployment system to fight off future attacks.

• There’s also much talk in the ‘literature’ about RNA and DNA roles in vaccine creation, but full disclosure: I’m not a scientist, as if you couldn’t tell. I don’t have a lab coat and that, at a minimum, is a giveaway.

• Vying for attention among a host of competitors, researchers at Oxford University claim to have developed a ‘platform’ vaccine they’re almost positive (to an 80% confidence level) will prove effective at warding off COVID-19. It has already successfully passed a clinical trial with primates. Testing among humans is being initiated, with several thousand people to be injected with a ‘live’ dosage and an equal number to be given a ‘placebo’. There’s a remote chance, perhaps helped along by keeping our fingers crossed, that one answer to our coronavirus woes may be available by the fall.

• Inherent difficulties in manufacturing and distributing the billions of batches of a vaccine remedy needed worldwide will then become the big story. Meanwhile, the drug remdesivir is being hailed as a therapeutic that can shorten the time frame of suffering experienced by the worst afflicted patients.

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Category: ConstructConnect

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