Could a COVID-19 vaccine be closer than we thought?

The past weeks have witnessed accelerated work related to the development of a COVID-19 vaccine. As cases continue to soar, Russia went on to register the world's first COVID vaccine. Meanwhile, other top vaccine candidates have been continuing to wrap up trials in an unprecedented way. India too is seeing promising work and leaders are promising to roll out of a vaccine in the earliest possible timeframe, with three vaccines in phase II/III.

Leading epidemiologist and US Infectious Disease expert, Dr Anthony Fauci, who was once too "cautiously optimistic" about pinning hopes on a vaccine to solve the crisis at large is now of the opinion that a potential vaccine could roll out early if trials go well.

The news comes after FDA announced plans of granting emergency authorisation to vaccines, as part of its Operation WarpSpeed. Several vaccine trials, in their crucial stages, are going on in pockets of the USA and have been funded enormously by the authorities.

Anothony Fauci also cited the findings of the Data and Monitoring Board, adding that they could end trials and launch the vaccine, seeing the good results.

“The data is so good right now that you can say it’s safe and effective,”. Fauci also remarked that the overwhelming results drawn in from candidates, such as Moderna and Oxford could push a vaccine for public use earlier than what was estimated.

Meanwhile, in India, which is the world's leading vaccine producer, development and trials are going on in a speedy way. Even though the trials started late, India's intellectual and medical know-how can be the key to rolling out an effective and fast vaccine.

Dr Harsh Vardhan, who serves as the country's health minister and also on the board of the WHO is super hopeful of India paving the way for success and stipulated the launch of an Indian vaccine before the end of the year.

“I hope that if everything goes well, India will get a coronavirus vaccine by the end of this year.”

Dr Gagandeep Kang, who is a Medical Scientist and Former Chair Member of ICMR Panel on COVID drugs and vaccines feels that right now, while major hurdles of the vaccine trials have been cleared, the focus should be on structural distribution and administration- which will deem whether a vaccine truly workable or not.

"It takes time to make a vaccine and the reason why vaccine manufacturers are now trying to buy facilities, book time at the manufacturing facilities, is because they want to be able to make the vaccine even before it is proven safe and effective...That is the fastest way to get to the market but the whole process of regulation takes time. It will take time to review the dossiers, it will take time to get the vaccine licensed, and once the vaccine is licensed we have to think about the logistics of distribution… You need something that fits in with your cold chain infrastructure, you need to be able to buy the vaccine, you need to land the vaccine, you need to distribute the vaccine, you need to train staff in how to give the vaccine."

WHO, which has, for long refrained from commenting on the probability of vaccine rooting away COVID-19 has now launched COVAX, a global vaccine alliance in partnership with GAVI to accelerate and facilitate vaccine distribution in developing countries. Such a move will help clear out problems and make the vaccine available and affordable to all, once approvals are met with.