Vaccines
By Rose Kartchner
If you’re like me, you’re probably saying to yourself, ‘why don’t they just make a vaccine for Coronavirus and give it to everyone?’ Seriously though, why don’t they? We could be done with this pandemic in a few days! (Maybe.) Well, turns out that vaccines are really hard to make. Plus, they cost lots of money. However, they are really helpful, so couldn’t the world just work together to make one really fast?
First, let’s get a better explanation of what vaccines are. Vaccines are treatments that make your body stronger. They help you fight off different diseases. When you get a shot, that’s called a vaccination. Shots can hurt A LOT, but they really help you so you don’t get super sick.
Wait. What’s in a vaccine? Is it water? Will it hurt me even more? Actually, no and no. Surprisingly, vaccines are made of little bits of germs. I know, it’s hard to believe, but it’s true. The germs that are in vaccines are already dead, or are very weak, so they won’t make you sick. However, your body doesn’t know the difference, and attacks the germs. When your body is attacking the tiny germ, it also makes little particles. These particles help your body destroy the germs if they ever get into your body again, like if you actually get the sickness.
You can think about it like your body is practicing to fight off the disease. Maybe you play a sport, or an instrument. Maybe you are just starting to read. When you practice, you can get much better at it. So when the real disease comes into your body, because your body has been practicing, you will be able to attack it before it even gets a chance to make you sick.
You’re probably thinking, ‘great, this is all awesome, but how come it takes so long to make a vaccine?’ Well, I’m going to answer that in just a second.
There are more than 100 different vaccines for Coronavirus being created. So experts are pretty sure that there will be a successful vaccine. They just have no idea when.
Vaccine development can be measured in decades, each step takes years to complete. It once took 26 years to make a vaccine for a disease named Rotavirus. But what are the steps for making a vaccine? First off, the people that create the vaccine have to test their vaccine on animals and make sure they don’t die. Then, they go to human testing, in three phases.
For phase one, they usually only have about 100 volunteers to be tested. This focuses on watching for safety issues and finding the correct dose to give. One scientist says that, “Remember, you give vaccines to people who are healthy. Therefore the standards of safety are very, very high.” Because of safety, this first step can take up to a month or longer.
In phase two, more people come to get vaccinated, and scientists again look for safety issues, and that your body is actually killing the disease. In some cases, the vaccine can make the disease even worse. That would be pretty terrible, wouldn’t it? Not a lot of vaccines make it to phase three. I mean, think about it, you have to spend months, even years, on the first two steps, and so much could go wrong. It could make people feel worse, it might not do anything, or it won’t be completely safe. Phase three has the largest group of people. Scientists again look at safety issues, and side effects. However, they also ask themselves, “How long will protection last”, and “Is this vaccine better or worse than nothing?”
At this step, scientists don’t know if their vaccine will work, if it will get approved by our country, or if everyone will need to get vaccinated at least twice a year. However, I hope that after reading this article, you can have a little bit more patience (I hope I can too) as they try to develop a vaccine as quickly as possible.
Sources: https://www.deseret.com/indepth/2020/5/9/21248262/coronavirus-vaccine-timeline-covid-19-mrna-dna-barry-bloom-paul-offit-fdahttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SproXmRUkI
If you’re like me, you’re probably saying to yourself, ‘why don’t they just make a vaccine for Coronavirus and give it to everyone?’ Seriously though, why don’t they? We could be done with this pandemic in a few days! (Maybe.) Well, turns out that vaccines are really hard to make. Plus, they cost lots of money. However, they are really helpful, so couldn’t the world just work together to make one really fast?
First, let’s get a better explanation of what vaccines are. Vaccines are treatments that make your body stronger. They help you fight off different diseases. When you get a shot, that’s called a vaccination. Shots can hurt A LOT, but they really help you so you don’t get super sick.
Wait. What’s in a vaccine? Is it water? Will it hurt me even more? Actually, no and no. Surprisingly, vaccines are made of little bits of germs. I know, it’s hard to believe, but it’s true. The germs that are in vaccines are already dead, or are very weak, so they won’t make you sick. However, your body doesn’t know the difference, and attacks the germs. When your body is attacking the tiny germ, it also makes little particles. These particles help your body destroy the germs if they ever get into your body again, like if you actually get the sickness.
You can think about it like your body is practicing to fight off the disease. Maybe you play a sport, or an instrument. Maybe you are just starting to read. When you practice, you can get much better at it. So when the real disease comes into your body, because your body has been practicing, you will be able to attack it before it even gets a chance to make you sick.
You’re probably thinking, ‘great, this is all awesome, but how come it takes so long to make a vaccine?’ Well, I’m going to answer that in just a second.
There are more than 100 different vaccines for Coronavirus being created. So experts are pretty sure that there will be a successful vaccine. They just have no idea when.
Vaccine development can be measured in decades, each step takes years to complete. It once took 26 years to make a vaccine for a disease named Rotavirus. But what are the steps for making a vaccine? First off, the people that create the vaccine have to test their vaccine on animals and make sure they don’t die. Then, they go to human testing, in three phases.
For phase one, they usually only have about 100 volunteers to be tested. This focuses on watching for safety issues and finding the correct dose to give. One scientist says that, “Remember, you give vaccines to people who are healthy. Therefore the standards of safety are very, very high.” Because of safety, this first step can take up to a month or longer.
In phase two, more people come to get vaccinated, and scientists again look for safety issues, and that your body is actually killing the disease. In some cases, the vaccine can make the disease even worse. That would be pretty terrible, wouldn’t it? Not a lot of vaccines make it to phase three. I mean, think about it, you have to spend months, even years, on the first two steps, and so much could go wrong. It could make people feel worse, it might not do anything, or it won’t be completely safe. Phase three has the largest group of people. Scientists again look at safety issues, and side effects. However, they also ask themselves, “How long will protection last”, and “Is this vaccine better or worse than nothing?”
At this step, scientists don’t know if their vaccine will work, if it will get approved by our country, or if everyone will need to get vaccinated at least twice a year. However, I hope that after reading this article, you can have a little bit more patience (I hope I can too) as they try to develop a vaccine as quickly as possible.
Sources: https://www.deseret.com/indepth/2020/5/9/21248262/coronavirus-vaccine-timeline-covid-19-mrna-dna-barry-bloom-paul-offit-fdahttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SproXmRUkI
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