Vaccinations are already taking place in Great Britain and Russia; in the European Union, the corona vaccination will not come until the end of December at the earliest.
Find out more about the vaccines here.
The Covid-19 vaccination is intended to prevent severe disease and curb the spread of the pandemic.
In some countries, people can already get vaccinated.
In Germany, the corona vaccination * should be possible at the end of December at the earliest.
Risk groups such as the elderly and the sick as well as healthcare professionals are the first to have the opportunity to get vaccinated.
The possible preparations are three vaccine candidates, including mRNA / DNA vaccines.
You can find out how these work and whether side effects are possible here.
Two vaccines are about to be approved in the European Union (EU): One candidate comes from the Mainz-based company Biontech and its US partner Pfizer.
The other vaccine was developed by the US company Moderna, as the Tagesschau informed.
According to the European Medicines Agency (EMA), the Moderna preparation should be approved in mid-January, while Biontech's drug will be approved by the end of December at the earliest
.
The two preparations are among a series of vaccine candidates that have been developed since the coronavirus genome was deciphered.
There are currently more than 210 vaccine
projects
running worldwide
- most of them are, however, still in the preclinical development phase according to the "National Steering Group on Vaccination" and are therefore still a long way from approval.
48 vaccines are already being tested on humans in clinical trials.
The Moderna and Biontech vaccines (both mRNA vaccines) have already passed phase I, phase II and phase III of the clinical test, which is why an application for approval could be submitted here.
Clinical test of corona vaccines - a brief overview
At the start of vaccine development, the preclinical phase determines which components of the virus and which additives should be taken into account in the vaccine.
The manufactured product is then tested on animals before it is tested on volunteers in a three-stage process
, the German government informs.
This procedure looks like this:
Phase I:
The tolerance of a vaccine and its ability to elicit an immune defense reaction is tested on a maximum of 100 healthy volunteers.
Phase II:
The tolerance and the immune response are tested on several hundred volunteers.
The correct dose is also determined here.
Phase III:
Several thousand to several tens of thousands of volunteers are vaccinated.
The study leaders investigate whether the vaccine protects against infection and what possible side effects occur.
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Covid-19 vaccinations: an overview of the vaccines
According to Apotheken Umschau, there are three lines of vaccine candidates that could protect against Covid-19:
live vaccines with vector viruses, mRNA / DNA vaccines and dead vaccines
.
In the case of the latter, inactive Sars-CoV-2 viruses are used in the production process, which have previously been modified so that they can no longer multiply in the body.
In contrast, when developing live vaccines, researchers use a virus that is harmless to humans and add fragments of the coronavirus to it.
The aim here is to stimulate the immune system so that it produces antibodies against the corona components of the virus.
The two vaccine candidates from Biontech / Pfizer and Moderna, which are currently in the EU approval process, are mRNA / DNA vaccines.
These contain parts of the coronavirus genome in the form of a so-called messenger RNA
.
Upon contact with this messenger RNA, the body produces proteins typical for the coronavirus that do not make you sick, but stimulate the immune system to produce corona antibodies.
Possible side effects of a corona vaccination
According to the federal government, it cannot be ruled out whether corona vaccines can cause side effects.
Established vaccines also have side effects, it is important to know them exactly.
Because only in this way would a safe decision for or against the vaccination be possible, according to information on www.bundesregierung.de.
Sometimes very rare side effects would be seen even after a new vaccine was approved
.
The Paul Ehrlich Institute is responsible for this and records all side effects and vaccine reactions of vaccines in Germany.
(jg)
*
Merkur.de is part of the nationwide Ippen-Digital editorial network.
More sources: https://www.nali-impfen.de/impfstoffe-sicherheit/stand-der-sars-cov-2-impfstoffentwicklung/;
https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/spahn-fuer-schnelle-impfstoffzulassung-101.html
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