Vaccine against Coronavirus It may not be as simple as one jab and it is immune.

The final vaccine is likely to require two doses at intervals of about a month, which may result in booster immunizations several years later, increasing management and distribution complexity and cost.

Much remains unclear about SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Despite doctors struggling to understand the natural history of disease, scientists around the world are working to find vaccines to protect humanity from viruses. Only some of the rough outlines of what vaccinations may seem to have come to are now.

SARS-CoV-2 is a newly emerging virus for which no one has developed an antibody, so it may be necessary to administer it twice. It is also believed that many vaccines that may be created using the new system will require two doses to achieve full immunity.

The first shot stimulates the immune system, making it easier to recognize the virus. The second shot strengthens the immune response.

Almost all of the 100+ vaccine candidates at different stages of the trial are expected to be on a two-dose schedule, says Barry Bloom, an immunologist and professor of public health at Harvard TH. .. Chan Health School in Boston.

“As far as I know, with the exception of one set, all frontline vaccine developers are looking at two shots. One exception was Merck, which promoted two vaccines last week. I hope it will be a one-shot vaccine.”

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Once the vaccine’s potential reaches human clinical trials, the exact dosage will be revealed, said Dr. Kelly Moore, associate director of vaccination education at the Vaccination Action Alliance.

“The answer should be found in human studies showing how we respond to vaccines. One vs. two doses.”

LJ Tan, Chief Strategy Officer of the Vaccination Action Alliance and co-chair of the National Adult Vaccination Summit, said coronavirus vaccines, which require two doses, should probably be given at one-month or two-dose intervals There will be a national influenza vaccine summit.

When the first dose of vaccine is given, the immune system responds to something never seen before.

“The immune system sees it, processes it, remembers it, and develops antibodies and immune cells,” Tan said. “If you have an infection at that point, you’ll fight it off and you won’t get sick. It’s immune.”

However, some pathogens require a second dose to fully prepare the immune system to fight off the infection.

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Vaccine series is common

Another question is whether a single dose is enough.

Some vaccines, such as measles, make a person immune to life. This is partly because the measles virus is stable and unchanged.

Influenza-like illnesses actually come from multiple strains of influenza that are continuously mutated and sometimes recombined, requiring an annually updated vaccine.

So far, SARS-CoV-2 has been relatively stable,The first protective vaccine would likely serve as a booster for maintaining longer immunity, Bloom said.

However, a person’s antibody response may decrease over the years. For viruses with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), and SARS-CoV-2, some data show that antibody levels decline over time.

“The MERS serology data can decline in about three years,” said Dr Kathryn Edwards, a pediatric professor at Vanderbilt University and the scientific director of the Vanderbilt vaccine research program.

Whether the same applies to SARS-CoV-2 is still unclear. If so, you may need booster injections a few years later. “Only the test will tell,” Edwards said.

With common coronaviruses that cause colds, immunity tends to last from 3 to 6 months to almost always less than a year. Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Said in an interview On Tuesday with an editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

“SARS-CoV-2 can be quite different from this coronavirus, which can elicit a very durable response. However, it behaves like other common coronaviruses. If the immunity isn’t likely to be very long lasting, “he said.

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Challenges of double administration

However, there may be no way around the double-dose regime that is common to many vaccinations given to children.

The measles vaccine is given twice. The pneumococcal vaccine protects against sepsis of several types of pneumonia, meningitis, and the potentially fatal blood infection, and is given four times. The DTaP vaccine is given five times to prevent the three deadly diseases of tetanus, diphtheria and whooping cough.

These are given during childhood when infants frequently visit pediatricians, so it is easy to make sure that the vaccination is done in the correct time frame. In fact, the timing of infant health checkups is built on a vaccination schedule to make it as easy as possible for parents.

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In adults, things are more complicated. According to Moore, hepatitis B, HPV, hepatitis A, and herpes zoster vaccines all require that adults be given 2-3 times, and most of the adults in need are not vaccinated. Immunization Action Alliance.

Implementing a two-dose vaccine protocol across the country requires coordination and close record keeping. Important is a state immunization registration run by the state health department.

According to Moore, children are now primarily used to get all the vaccinations they need, and the registry is preparing to record and track vaccinations for a large number of adults.

Claire Hannan, Executive Director of the Association of Immunization Managers, is responsible for the state health agency’s vaccination program by setting up a workgroup and calling the CDC and vaccination registration manager every two weeks.

“I am lucky to have time to prepare,” she said.

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