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Make the Bad Man go away

A cell infected with particles of SARS-CoV-2. Image credit: Cynthia S. Goldsmith and Azaibi Tamin/CDC/SPL

Do you remember the first time you saw a discarded surgical mask beside the sidewalk or along the roadway? (Cloth ones came later.) Or a used latex glove? The story of 2020 told in roadside trash.

Yeah, all that — and the social distancing, joblessness, avoiding going out, no school for kids, and the daily death count — is getting pretty old. We find ourselves dropping our guard on wiping surfaces and hand-washing.

My wife and her childhood friends had an expression for unpleasant things: “Make the Bad Man go away!” There is a double entendre in that today. But let’s focus this morning on how researchers are doing at making the viral Bad Man go away.

The New York Times has a Coronavirus Vaccine Tracker for that. Briefly:

Researchers around the world are developing more than 165 vaccines against the coronavirus, and 29 vaccines are in human trials. Vaccines typically require years of research and testing before reaching the clinic, but scientists are racing to produce a safe and effective vaccine by next year.

Work began in January with the deciphering of the SARS-CoV-2 genome. The first vaccine safety trials in humans started in March, but the road ahead remains uncertain. Some trials will fail, and others may end without a clear result. But a few may succeed in stimulating the immune system to produce effective antibodies against the virus.

They come in various flavors: genetic, viral vector, protein-based, whole-virus, and repurposed vaccines. Only one from China is approved so far, and only for limited use.

U.S. News & World Report runs down three more of the most promising now in phase three trials.

A viral vector vaccine developed in the UK at the University of Oxford with AstraZeneca produces an immune response in trial participants 18-55. If it proves safe and effective in phase three trials underway, AstraZeneca plans to have 2 billion doses (nonprofit) ready early next year. The U.S. will pay $1.2 billion 300 million of them, reports U.S. News.

Moderna’s test vaccine in partnership with the National Institutes of Health will face its final trials by late September with 30,000 volunteers. Supported by nearly $1 billion in government funds, it uses messenger RNA replicated from the virus to evoke an immune response. If successful, it would be the first mRNA drug used in humans. “Moderna President Stephen Hoge told Congress in July that he would not promise to sell the vaccine at-cost.”

Pfizer is working with German company BioNTech and the Chinese drug maker Fosun Pharma on several candidates. BNT162b2, another mRNA vaccine showing an immune response is in phase two/three trials as of last month. Pfizer has taken no funds from the government and has not committed to selling the drug at cost. “The U.S. has agreed to spend nearly $2 billion for 100 million doses of the companies’ potential vaccine with the chance to acquire up to 500 million additional doses.”

The Times mentions several others from China and another from Australia now in phase three trials. Michigan Health Lab has additional background on how the various candidates work. The vaccines being funded by the government with $9 billion spread among seven companies are all based on new technologies never approved before, reports USA Today. “They have been chosen because they were faster to develop than more conventional vaccines, which is important in fighting a virus currently killing about 1,000 Americans a day.”

There are many more months of discarded masks ahead before vaccines have a shot at restoring normalcy. But Americans have a chance to make the other Bad Man go away long before then. YOU are the vaccine against him.

Kick his ass … and his friends’ too.

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