Tag Archives: COVID-19 vaccines

Paul Hunter, University of East Anglia After over 18 months of this pandemic, with the social distancing, mask wearing and on-off lockdowns, what we all want to know more than anything else is when it will all be over and how it will end. While nothing is certain, we have a lot of evidence on which to build some realistic …

International efforts should prioritise equitable access to vaccines. Immanuel A.Afolabi/Majority World/Universal Images Group via Getty Images Alex Ezeh, Drexel University; Michael Silverman, Western University, and Saverio Stranges, Western University There’s been an increase in COVID-19 deaths across Africa since mid-July 2021. But the impact of the pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa remains markedly lower compared to the Americas, Europe and Asia. …

Andre Coelho/EPA/AAP Sunit K. Singh, Banaras Hindu University Over a year into the pandemic, questions around immune responses after COVID continue to confound. One question many people are asking is whether the immunity you get from contracting COVID and recovering is enough to protect you in the future. The answer is no, it’s not. Here’s why. Remind me, how does …

One of this and one of that might be a good strategy to coronavirus vaccination. SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images Maureen Ferran, Rochester Institute of Technology While it’s now pretty easy to get a COVID-19 shot in most places in the U.S., the vaccine rollout in other parts of the world has been slow or inconsistent due to shortages, uneven …

Daniel Merino, The Conversation and Gemma Ware, The Conversation In this episode of The Conversation Weekly podcast, as India’s COVID-19 crisis continues, we look at what’s holding back the country’s vaccination rollout and how a shift in strategy on distribution and pricing is causing concern. And we speak to a researcher who went hunting for fungi in the world’s largest …

Jennifer Juno, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity and Adam Wheatley, The University of Melbourne Since COVID-19 vaccines began rolling out across the world, many scientists have been hesitant to say they can reduce transmission of the virus. Their primary purpose is to prevent you from getting really sick with the virus, and it quickly became clear the …

Rizqy Amelia Zein, Universitas Airlangga The public call to make science more open and transparent is not only longstanding, it has been intensified by the Covid-19 pandemic. In response to the health crisis, researchers around the world have gotten together and worked to understand the nature of the disease, develop vaccines, and create efficient ways to diagnose and treat patients. …

Andrew Pollard, University of Oxford Usually, World Immunisation Week is a chance for those of us who research vaccines to reinforce the message about their importance in saving lives. From whooping cough to polio, measles to meningitis, vaccines have quietly been saving millions of lives, every year, for decades. Usually, nobody really cares or takes notice. However, 2021 is different. …

Sarah Schiffling, Liverpool John Moores University and Liz Breen, University of Bradford When the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, announced on August 11 2020 that the country’s health regulator had become the first in the world to approve a COVID-19 vaccine for widespread use, the news was greeted with scepticism. No trials had been completed on the vaccine’s safety and efficacy. …

Liz Breen, University of Bradford and Sarah Schiffling, Liverpool John Moores University Two new COVID-19 vaccines are due to arrive in the UK. As the country begins to emerge from lockdown, recent announcements about the Moderna and Novavax vaccines will boost confidence in its vaccination rollout. With more than 30 million first doses administered, the rollout is going well. It …