Covid 19 Vaccines. Biological & Biomedical Sciences Term Paper

Student’s Name
Professor’s Name
Course
Date of Submission
COVID-19 Vaccines
The world is dealing with a pandemic. Beginning late 2019, the COVID-19 (coronavirus) or SARS-CoV-2 pandemic began and it is now considered a threat to public health. Millions of people have been infected worldwide. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as of November 27, the World Health Organization (WHO) has reported approximately 1,433,316 COVID-19 deaths (Centers 1). Many health organizations and institutions are working to find a way to manage the disease. The situation has prompted efforts to develop a vaccine to help curb the disease. It is important to provide a simplified analysis on the significance of the disease and biological details on COVID-19 vaccines.
Why COVID-19 Vaccines are Important
Prevent Disease and Deaths: COVID-19 has resulted in many deaths. The development and administration of COVID-19 vaccines is helpful in preventing people from getting sick from the virus. Centers (1) notes that while some people suffer mild symptoms from the disease, others may become adversely affected or may die. It is not possible to tell how the disease may affect an individual, which could have deadly consequences. COVID-19 vaccines can help the body build protection against the disease.
Protecting Vulnerable Population: COVID-19 vaccine is also important in protecting people at increased risk of adverse effects from the disease. For example, risk of severe symptoms and complications of COVID-19 increase with age, with older adults at an increased risk. Another vulnerable condition is people with certain underlying conditions (Centers 1). For example, adults with conditions such as cancer, Type 2 diabetes, chronic kidney disease, severe obesity, and sickle cell disease have a higher risk of complications or death from COVID-19 (Centers 1). A vaccine lowers such risks.
Stopping the Pandemic: While washing hands, wearing masks, and sanitizing can reduce the risk of exposure to COVID-19, such measures remain insufficient to stop the pandemic. A vaccine ensures a person’s immune system can fight the virus when exposed. Given that COVID-19 is highly contagious, vaccines are the best way to prevent the pandemic (Centers 1). The more people build immunity, the better the chances of elimination.
Biological Details
How COVID-19 Vaccine is Being Developed
Today, many drug companies and health institutions are in a rush to develop a vaccine for COVID-19. Traditionally, vaccines are made by using the virus itself to allow the immune system to learn to fight it (Lauring et al. 574). Scientists often leave the virus alive but weakened – all the chutzpah of the virus is eliminated – before introduced into the human body for the immune to attack and build antibodies against it (Lauring et al. 573). In recent years, the techniques for building a vaccine aims at isolating a specific component of the virus that is most essential for immunity. In the case of the SARS-CoV-2, the specific part is the spike protein (Siemens). In lay man’s terms, the spike protein appears in the cartoon image of the virus as the mushroom-like knobs scattered on its sphere-shaped surface. The SARS-CoV-2...