SARS-CoV-2 Vs Vaccines- the tug of war

Abstract

As of March 26, 2021, 10:40 GMT, the total number(globally) of SARS-CoV-2 (Coronavirus) Cases are 126,180,072, and number of deaths are 2,769,326 with a mortality rate of 3%.1 In terms of affected number, this pandemic has swiftly surpassed its nearest rival HIV/AIDS, which has infected nearly 100,000,000 people since it started in 1981 and gotten established at the 4 spot in the list of pandemics of all time.2,3 In little more than a year, this draconical demon had kept the scientific commune at their toes. Since the release of its first genome on 10 Jan 2020 research organizations have sweated day in and day out to find an efficient lasting solution in terms of developing vaccines.4 Thus, the era of vaccinology began and the expertise of scientists’ world over have shown result. The inclusion of mRNA and nanotechnology platform has enabled us to produce vaccines at a fast pace and also to make swift alteration to them as and when needed depending on virus behaviour. To date we have 242 candidate vaccines, 66 are in phase 3 clinical trial and 11 are licensed for public use.5–7 Availability of multiple vaccines with a different mode of action is a well come step. This provides a diverse population with antibodies against different components of the virus thus making its’ life difficult. In case it mutates against a particular vaccine; as been noticed for the South African variant against oxfordAstraZeneca -which is produced on viral vector platform using a chimpanzee