How can a vaccine be developed for coronavirus?
You must have read my earlier blog related to how the SARS CoV2 infects the lungs and causes death. This is a continuation to that article.
You would get a vaccine that contains faint version of a virus. The vaccine then exposes you to a version of virus (yet to be developed) that is too weak to cause an infection but just strong enough to stimulate an immune response. Within a few weeks, cells in your immune system would make markers called antibodies which would be specific for only the Coronavirus or specifically for it's spike protein.
Antibodies then attach to the virus and prevent it from attaching to your cells.
Your immune system then responds to signals from the antibodies by consuming and destroying the clumps of viruses.
If you then catch the virus at a later stage, your body would recognize it and then destroy it. In other words, your immune system is now immune to SARS CoV2.
What is taking researchers so long to develop a vaccines?
Collecting evidence on whether this will be possible, safe and effective is part of what is taking researchers so long to develop a vaccine.
It is not an easy task to develop a vaccine amidst a pandemic. Each step in vaccine development usually takes months. Record breaking time was taken to develop the Ebola virus. It took five years to develop it. There is hope that the vaccine for coronavirus will be developed in 12-18 months.
Stay protected and don't forget to wash your hands for atleast 20 seconds.
You would get a vaccine that contains faint version of a virus. The vaccine then exposes you to a version of virus (yet to be developed) that is too weak to cause an infection but just strong enough to stimulate an immune response. Within a few weeks, cells in your immune system would make markers called antibodies which would be specific for only the Coronavirus or specifically for it's spike protein.
Antibodies then attach to the virus and prevent it from attaching to your cells.
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| Antibody attaching to the virus |
Your immune system then responds to signals from the antibodies by consuming and destroying the clumps of viruses.
 |
| Immune system responding to the virus |
If you then catch the virus at a later stage, your body would recognize it and then destroy it. In other words, your immune system is now immune to SARS CoV2.
What is taking researchers so long to develop a vaccines?
Collecting evidence on whether this will be possible, safe and effective is part of what is taking researchers so long to develop a vaccine.
It is not an easy task to develop a vaccine amidst a pandemic. Each step in vaccine development usually takes months. Record breaking time was taken to develop the Ebola virus. It took five years to develop it. There is hope that the vaccine for coronavirus will be developed in 12-18 months.
Stay protected and don't forget to wash your hands for atleast 20 seconds.
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