Many hope that the corona pandemic will end with a vaccine.
Now researchers want to have developed a substance that offers 90 percent protection against the virus.
So far, only the symptoms of a coronavirus infection * can be alleviated - researchers want to have found a vaccine that offers 90 percent protection.
A vaccine usually takes up to ten years or more to develop.
The federal government assumes that a corona vaccine will be available in the first quarter of 2021 at the earliest.
Researchers warn against too high expectations for a first-generation vaccination.
Vaccination against Covid-19: British researchers develop substance with 90 percent protection
Update from November 9th, 2020, 4:47 pm:
According to their own statement, the companies Pfizer and BioNTech
achieved
a
breakthrough with regard to a corona vaccination
on Monday
: According to the BBC, they described it as a "great day for science and humanity".
The reason: A vaccine developed by the companies mentioned was tested on 43,500 people in six countries - and
no safety concerns were found
, according to the information
.
In addition, the vaccination should offer 90 percent protection against Covid-19.
It is now being planned that an emergency approval for the use of the vaccine will be applied for by the end of the month.
Could the fight against Corona soon be defeated with this?
"There are still great challenges ahead of us, but the
announcement has been warmly welcomed by scientists,
" Sir John Bell, Professor of Medicine at Oxford University, told the BBC.
"I'll probably be the first to say this, but I will say it with a degree of confidence."
As a result,
two doses
of the
vaccine are required three weeks apart
.
The trials took place in the USA, Germany, Brazil, Argentina, South Africa and Turkey.
Ninety percent protection was found to be achieved seven days after the second dose administered.
In Great Britain, ten million cans are to be available by the end of the year, and another 30 million cans have already been ordered, the BBC also reported.
Vaccination protection against Covid-19: First vaccinations in early 2021 - for risk groups and caregivers
Update from November 9th, 2020, 3:59 p.m.:
Researchers, citizens and governments around the world have the great hope that an effective Covid 19 vaccination can return to normal.
The first people are to be vaccinated in the first quarter of 2021 - on a voluntary basis and free of charge.
This emerges from the National Vaccine Strategy, which lists seven vaccines that could still be used in 2020 or 2021 - including products from the pharmaceutical companies Biontech, Moderna, Astra-Zeneca and Curevac, as Deutsche Welle (DW) informs as the international broadcaster of the Federal Republic of Germany.
Even with an accelerated approval process, careful attention will be paid to “proof of the effectiveness, pharmaceutical quality and harmlessness of the vaccine”
, quotes DW from the National Vaccine Strategy.
Since initially insufficient vaccine will be available for the entire population, nursing staff, doctors and risk groups will be given priority vaccination, as Chancellor Angela Merkel said at a press conference on November 8th.
The chairwoman of the German Ethics Council, Alena Buyx, also made it clear: Since the vaccine will be scarce at the beginning, priority must be given.
Those who have the highest risk of getting seriously ill with Covid-19 * or even dying from the infection must receive preferential treatment.
This would include elderly people with a weak immune system, but also people
who are exposed to
an
increased risk of infection
through their work
.
Is it back to normal in two years?
First coronavirus vaccines "probably not the ultimate solution"
Update from October 12th, 2020
: The return to normality - i.e. in the time before Corona - is linked to the development of a vaccine.
Companies and research institutes around the world are developing compounds that will run the first clinical tests on humans.
But there is still no corona vaccine on the market that is available to the masses like the measles or flu vaccines.
Gabriel Matthew Leung, a medical doctor and epidemiologist from Hong Kong and dean of the medical faculty at the University of Hong Kong, assumes that the first generation of Covid-19 vaccines will be approved in late 2020 or early 2021
.
However, he and his colleague Malik Peiris warn against having too high expectations of the vaccination, as this could weaken the disease, but would not significantly reduce the risk of infection.
In a paper published in the Lancet, the virologists came to the conclusion: “These observations suggest that we cannot assume that Covid-19 vaccines, even if they have been shown to be effective in reducing the severity of the disease, transmit virus transmission to a comparable extent will decrease.
The idea that immunity induced by Covid-19 vaccines enables the population to return to 'normality' before Covid-19 could be based on illusory assumptions ”.
Studies on monkeys vaccinated against corona had shown that although they were less ill, they were still contagious.
The first generation of vaccines will not be the "ultimate solution" - that is something that has to be conveyed to political decision-makers in particular, the Deutsche Apotheker Zeitung (DAZ) quotes Peiris and Leung.
And in Germany, too, expectations of the first vaccines against Covid-19 are being dampened.
The Standing Vaccination Commission (STIKO) informs that the vaccine will initially only be available to a limited extent and that it will take time until enough people have been vaccinated.
It could take up to two years before a normal life could be possible again in Germany
, the DAZ continues to quote the STIKO.
Coronavirus vaccine: WHO official warns of too high hopes
Update from
September 14th,
2020
: The WHO Director General for Europe, Hans Kluge, warned on Monday, September 14th, that the daily corona deaths in Europe would increase in October and autumn: "It will get harder," he said According to several media reports, the
number of new infections is rising
again, while deaths remain relatively stable, particularly in Spain and France.
But Kluge continues to warn: "I keep hearing: 'The vaccine will be the end of the pandemic.'
Of course not! ”Said the Belgian.
So far it is not even clear whether a vaccine can help all population groups.
There are indications that
a vaccine might help some groups, but not others
: "If we then have to order different vaccines, what a logistical nightmare!" He continues.
That is why Kluge warns against too high expectations of the vaccines.
Vaccination against the coronavirus: "Vaccine King of India" starts production - although test results are pending
Update from 05/05/2020: Companies around the world are reporting progress in vaccine development against Covid-19 - the "vaccine king of India" wants to start manufacturing in two weeks at the latest
.
Cyrus Poonawalla, an Indian businessman, got his nickname for a reason: Poonawalla has been in the vaccine business for more than 50 years.
His company, Serum Institute of India, is considered the largest vaccine manufacturer in the world.
As the Tagesschau reported, Poonawalla now wants to initiate the production of 40 million vaccine doses of a promising vaccine candidate.
It is a serum that was developed by the University of Oxford and is currently being tested on more than 1,000 British people.
Although the clinical tests are not yet finished, Cyrus Poonawalla's son Adar Poonawalla, the current managing director, said in an interview with the Indian news broadcaster NDTV: "These tests could turn out to be successful and safe by September or October. In my opinion, the chances are good because the Oxford researchers were also successful in vaccinating against Ebola. "
The vaccine should go into production for the general public in just two weeks - with the aim of producing up to 40 million vaccine doses in the next few months.
The project is considered to be extremely risky economically
, as the Serum Institute of India would have to take heavy losses if the tests in Great Britain do not achieve the desired success.
Also read
: Face mask on, but nose free: Is it really enough to just pull the mask over your mouth?
Coronavirus vaccine development: First clinical trial in the US
Update from March 19, 2020, 10:00 a.m
.: In the USA, the first clinical test of the possible coronavirus vaccine "mRNA-1273" started in mid-March 2020.
45 healthy volunteers will each receive two doses of up to half a milligram of the active ingredient injected within the next few weeks.
The first phase of the clinical test is currently running in a research institute in the northwestern metropolis of Seattle, as reported by Spiegel.
The vaccine was developed together with the private biotechnology company Moderna.
The researchers estimate that the entire process of vaccine development will take at least a year.
Update from March 19, 2020
: Countless pharmaceutical companies, research institutions and universities around the world are currently using all resources to
develop a vaccine against the new lung disease Covid-19 as quickly as possible
.
An infection with coronaviruses, also called Sars-CoV-2, can - depending on the patient's state of health - be asymptomatic or life-threatening *.
German companies are also researching effective vaccines, such as the Tübingen company CureVac.
Together with the Paul Ehrlich Institute for Vaccines and Biomedical Medicines, CureVac has already made progress.
"
We are very confident that we will be able to develop an effective vaccine candidate within a few months
", quoted the Tagesschau as quoting the former CureVac CEO Daniel Menichella.
The company hopes to have developed an experimental vaccine by July, which will then be approved for human trials with regulatory approval.
This message now also called Donald Trump on the scene.
According to the Tagesschau, the President of the United States is trying to bring German researchers to America so that they can develop drugs there that are to be used exclusively for US corona patients.
However, according to its own statements, CureVac is not aiming for a deal with the USA
.
More on the topic
:
Dangerous difference: Covid-19 and flu in comparison
.
No drugs against Covid-19 yet
Article from March 12th, 2020
: The spread of
the corona virus
causes worried citizens worldwide.
So far,
245,484 infections have been
reported (as of
March 20
,
2020
), most of those affected live in the central Chinese province of Hubei.
Their capital Wuhan is considered the center of the pandemic.
The first people are said to have been infected with the novel corona virus at an animal market there.
There are currently 10,031 fatalities, most of them in China.
Currently, only the symptoms can be alleviated; there are (yet) no drugs that render the coronavirus harmless.
But doctors are feverishly researching treatment options *
that specifically target the virus.
The pharmaceutical industry and research institutes have also started to develop vaccinations against the virus.
Also read
:
Does a face mask protect against coronavirus infection?
Who should wear them
.
40 vaccine projects underway: University of Queensland reports success
According to the Association of Researching Drug Manufacturers (vfa), at least
40 vaccine
projects have started
worldwide
, including a project by the German company BioNTech, two projects by the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF) and a project by the Israeli Biological Research Institute.
Promising test results have already been reported for some vaccine projects.
On March 16, 2020, a vaccine manufactured by the US company Moderna began to be tested on volunteers.
According to the vfa, the
first clinical studies with volunteers for
the vaccine from the US company Inovio have been
announced for April 2020
.
A University of Queensland project has reached animal testing.
The University of Hong Kong had also announced that it had found a vaccine against the coronavirus * that should now be tested further.
However, it would be months before he would have gone through all animal and human studies.
The development of a new, safe and effective vaccine can take up to 20 years
and cost up to a billion euros, as the medical newspaper reported.
In the current case, however, new technologies and financial support should make it possible to develop vaccine prototypes within a few months to the point where they can be tested on animals and humans.
Also read
:
Dangerous drug shortages in Germany?
Coronavirus pandemic with serious consequences
.
Coronavirus vaccine will come too late - scientists think
Another factor that could accelerate vaccine development: vaccine developers already have experience with pathogens from the coronavirus family.
The SARS virus belongs to the group of coronaviruses, which claimed innumerable lives in 2002/2003.
More than 20 vaccine development projects were running at the time - although some were stopped because the virus disappeared again
.
But researchers were able to post some interim results that can be used in the fight against the current corona pandemic.
It is not yet clear how the coronavirus pandemic could develop and when a vaccine will be available.
The British epidemic expert Jeremy Farrar assumes that a vaccine against the novel coronavirus will come too late to prevent the threatened global spread of the disease.
In an interview with Spiegel he said: "
And if we are unlucky, it will never succeed
".
(jg)
*
Merkur.de is part of the nationwide Ippen-Digital editors network
.
More sources
:
www.bundesgesundheitsministerium.de
;
www.rki.de
;
www.asiaone.com
;
www.experience.arcgis.com;
www.tagesschau.de;
www.vfa.de;
https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html;
www.spiegel.de
;
https://www.dw.com/de/risikogruppen-sollen-bei-corona-imichtung-bevorzugt- Werden/a-55542505
Survey on the subject
Read more
: This is the only way to protect hand washing from viruses: Every second person does it wrong.
Frankfurt
: The tourism industry in Frankfurt is clearly feeling the effects of the coronavirus *.
Hotels and trade fairs in particular are affected by the declining tourism from China.
However, there is no cause for concern.
These viruses and bacteria make us sick
These viruses and bacteria make us sick
*
merkur.de
and fnp.de are part of the nationwide Ippen-Digital editorial network
.
List of rubric lists: © picture alliance / dpa