Corona has been around the world for eight months now, and many drug companies are developing vaccines. • What drugs are there today and how can you fight the virus?
• Special project
The second wave of the Corona virus began to decline with the start of the closure in Israel, and the country may succeed in the coming weeks in a new routine that will reduce the restrictions, and even return some of the activity in the economy and part of the education system to functional status.
But it is clear to all of us that the main question regarding dealing with the corona is around finding drugs, as well as arriving at an effective vaccine that will allow the world to return to the routine that prevailed before the plague.
In light of this, we have decided to return to the question of where is the research in the world regarding the virus?
Are there already treatments that make it easier to deal with the corona, and are the medical world starting to see light at the end of the tunnel?
Photo: Knesset Channel
The answers to these questions are still complex, but today it is clearer that towards the end of 2021 or the beginning of 2022 good drugs and perhaps even vaccines have been released that will reduce the risk of infection, and return the world to almost normal activity.
In the meantime, until these distant dates, here are the things that can already instill in us cautious optimism in relation to the international confrontation with the plague.
The FDA approves Remedial Siberia as a drug
Last week received one of the most important news in relation to the Corona epidemic and is the approval of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that the antiviral drug developed for the Ebola virus and Marburg virus infections, is also suitable for fighting the Corona virus.
In this way, approval was received for the company's publications as early as July, which stated that the treatment in Remedisibir helped about 75% of the patients to recover, compared with 59% in any other alternative treatment.
In fact, it is not a complete cure that prevents mortality from the disease, but it does help many patients.
"Data show that this treatment has the potential to help patients suffering from the effects of this destructive virus, and the potential to help more hospitalized patients," said FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn when he announced the drug's approval.
Beyond Remedial Siberia, hospitals around the world use various drugs that suppress inflammation in the body as a healing process against coronary heart disease.
These are existing off-the-shelf medications, whose function is to reduce the body's overreaction to inflammation.
It turns out that some severe corona patients actually died from the body's own acute immune response to the disease, so the small amount of the physical response saves people.
These are drugs like Actamra and Dexamethasone that reduce the body's inflammatory overreaction.
Opposite the corona
One of the experimental treatments that President Donald Trump received when he contracted the disease was genetically engineered antibodies from the Regeneron company that are supposed to fight the virus itself.
It is actually an advanced genetic engineering of cells that are similar to the cells produced by people who have recovered from the corona, and these cells can already fight the virus on their own.
So far not many tests of this drug have been done, but reports of controlled trials on patients in the US have shown that the company may have actually succeeded in producing synthetic antibodies to the disease. Of course this is the beginning to mass production of this innovative drug.
And what about vaccination?
On Sunday this week, the head of the American Institute of Allergy and Disease, Dr. Anthony Pucci, was interviewed by the media networks in the United States, and estimated that by the end of November or the beginning of December we will probably know if there is an effective vaccine against the virus.
The expert only qualified his remarks and noted that even if there is such a vaccine, it will take a long time of at least five months before it is actually distributed around the world.
Regarding this there are a number of companies that are at the end of the third stage of the corona vaccine test and even those who have already completed their last test and are just waiting to see that the vaccine has no side effects.
Here are the companies that are actually before final FDA approval.
Pfizer-Biontech
Pfizer has completed with its German partner Binotech the entire chain of vaccines required to obtain an emergency certificate for the vaccine it has created.
In fact, the company finished the injection of the second vaccine against the corona it developed at the beginning of the month, and no side effects were reported in any of the tens of thousands of volunteers.
Therefore, the company will probably submit an exceptional request to the FDA as early as next month for the start of widespread public injection of the vaccine it has developed.
Photo: Pfizer
A significant expression of the FDA's trust in the drug giant and the vaccine it has was the fact that last week they approved Pfizer to begin research to find a vaccine for children up to age 12. Vaccination for children is a more complex practice than an adult vaccine, and the drug giant's approval indicates a breakthrough.
In fact, Pfizer will probably be the first company in the West to start giving a mass vaccine, if a really unexpected scenario does not happen, as early as next December.
Modern, Astra Zenka and Johnson & Johnson
Beyond Pfizer, these three companies are also at the finish line of the final phase of the mass test of the vaccine on tens of thousands of people.
Although the companies encountered a number of difficulties in the third mass injection phase, including reports of illness and death of one of the experimenters, it was proven that the side effects and death were not related to the companies' immune compounds, so after a temporary halt they returned to orbit.
But because of the delays and also because of the process of submitting the FDA approval documents, it seems that the companies will submit their application for approval at the end of next month i.e. at the end of November.
The testing processes in the organization will probably take about a month as well, and it is likely that approval for the vaccination of these three companies will be obtained in late December or early January.
In fact this means that after or around Christmas celebrations in the Christian world a global race of rapid production of tens if not hundreds of millions of vaccine doses will begin.
The one who is making a tremendous effort to put her vaccine to use even before the start of the new year is the Astrazenka company.
Despite the vaccine of the pharmaceutical company Astrazenka has not yet received the necessary necessary medical approvals, the company today announced a major leap forward in the vaccine trial as the data showed that elderly volunteers who received the vaccine developed antibodies at the required level.
This is great news as the elderly are the population most at risk from corona disease and giving them priority in the vaccine will allow a faster return to routine.
China and Russia
While in the West they are waiting for FDA approval and its European equivalent for orderly approval of vaccines, also fast emergency vaccines, in Russia and China a significant operation of vaccinating the population with vaccines not tested in the third stage, ie caution testing on tens of thousands of users.
It is important to note that vaccines usually go through several stages until they are approved, the significant one being a controlled examination of tens of thousands of people, but Russia and China have strategically decided to skip this stage and actually launch 4 vaccines directly from the lab into the field without risk testing.
This is not to say that these are not good vaccines, as the three giant countries have the sufficient experience and knowledge to make progress in the field.
Beyond these two countries, the vaccines have also been joined by Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates, where those who wish can obtain the vaccines.
It is very difficult to know whether these vaccines are indeed good, although this can not be ruled out at all, but in any case so far it has not been reported that the vaccines have led to death or serious side effects.
The only side effects reported were fever, redness and mild pain at the injection site, which passed within days.
Research support for the Russian vaccine
It is important to note in the context of the Russian vaccine that in a study published in the international journal The Lancet in September it was reported that under controlled conditions, experimenters who received the Russian vaccine developed antibodies to the disease and no abnormal side effects were recorded.
However the World Health Organization and the West are unwilling to test a vaccine that has not passed the accepted method of investigation and testing so it will take a long time before the vaccine, dubbed Sputnik 5, is approved for use in Western countries.
Another surprising Israeli supporter of the Russian vaccine was the director general of Hadassah Hospital, Prof. Zeev Rothstein, who said that he "very much trusts the Russians."
"We started recruiting Phase 3 volunteers for the Russian vaccine in Moscow this week."
And what about Israel?
The leading institute in Israel in the field of finding a vaccine for the corona virus is the Biological Institute in Ness Ziona.
The institute was able to prove that it has a vaccine that harms the virus in the laboratory and has now announced, with the approval of all health authorities in the country, the start of human trials.
Photo: Elad Malka, spokeswoman for the Ministry of Defense
The institute's vaccine needs to go through 3 stages of injections, the last and critical one, if the first two stages are successful, will be a mass injection of the vaccine to about 30,000 volunteers in April and May 2021.
If no problems are discovered then, then two months later around July-August 2021, Israel will be able to produce its own vaccine against the corona without having to buy the vaccine from other countries in the world.
Vitamin therapy
Vitamin D
One of the vitamins that many doctors and experts claim to alleviate or reduce the risk of being affected by the corona plague is vitamin D. Calls for its use have been heard around the world and the Israel Today health correspondent recently reported that doctors and dietitians in Israel join the recommendations Vitamin D, in light of the link that has been found so far between its high levels and reduced risk of disease in Corona, and due to the fact that a large part of the Israeli population suffers from vitamin deficiency.
"This treatment is simple, inexpensive, accessible and has a low risk of complications and toxicity," reads a position document published by the Association of Dietitians and Nutritionists in Israel (Atid) and physicians from the "Israeli Clinical Nutrition Society."
It is important to note, however, that this is a recommendation, and there is no actual scientific evidence to support the claim.
It is also important to note that the amount of vitamin consumed must be accompanied by a doctor.
Vitamin C
More and more studies show that vitamin C treatment has helped corona patients, shortening the sick days among patients.
While there is still no conclusive evidence for this, it seems that a controlled daily intake of the vitamin may help.
But here too it is very important to note that vitamin intake must be done after consulting a doctor.
zinc
Zinc is also known as one of the substances that help the body fight viruses and even prevents their replication ability.
In this regard, in relation to Corona there are experts who also recommend consuming the vitamin and there are many studies in the world (over 100 studies examining the field), but there is still no unequivocal recommendation and here too it is worth consulting doctors.
