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Now or Later? Is the First Available Covid Vaccine Worth It?

 

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Video Transcript:

The Coronavirus pandemic has been one of the most devastating, controversial, and eye-opening events in this world’s history. March 2020 was when everyone in America had their lives flipped upside down. Schools were shut down and converted to virtual learning, many businesses had to close, and there was even a limitation of how many people could be in the same room in certain places. Not only did people have to stay isolated and distant, but the constant thought of possibly dying from Covid-19 always lingered in the air. In only a year, more than 120 million people in the world have been infected and over 2.7 million people have died from Covid 19. The death toll continues to rise today, and the CDC has suggested multiple ways to limit the spread of coronavirus. One of the main suggestions is that people should receive the Covid vaccine, but will this really solve the problem? Should people trust the current vaccines, or should they wait for another vaccine to come out down the line?

When these vaccines were first introduced to the public, it seemed as though a solution had finally materialized, but as time went on, people began to decline the opportunity to get the vaccine. The uproar about the Coronavirus vaccine stems from many factors. People question if it is really effective, if there is some type of “chip” in the shot, and if it will have long lasting effects on their bodies. The three available vaccines are Moderna, Pfizer, and Johnson & Johnson. Researchers and scientists knew that in order to stop the spread of Covid and get citizens on their side they would have to prove how effective and trustworthy these vaccines were through even more scientific experiments that the public could understand. This research was encouraged and carried out to not only educate the public, but to also persuade the public to get vaccinated if proven effective. This research was conducted by Sarah M. Bartsch, Kelly J. O’Shea, Patrick T. Wedlock, Ulrich Strych, Marie C. Ferguson, Maria Elena Bottazzi, Samuel L. Randall, Sheryl S. Siegmund, Sarah N. Cox, Peter J. Hotez, and Bruce Y. Lee.

The researchers hypothesized that the first available vaccine would help reduce the spread of Covid and people waiting for future vaccines would have a higher chance of getting the virus. In order to complete this experiment in 2020, the scientists developed a model that represented many factors. The model represented the U.S. population, COVID-19 coronavirus spread, and vaccines with different possible efficacies. The scientists also made a model to show vaccination timings to estimate the clinical and economic value of vaccination. With this model, they would be able to put together data that would be an accurate representation of America during this pandemic. They also needed to properly represent the coronavirus spread as well as measure the vaccine with different efficacies so that it could reflect present day societal problems. After the experiments, scientists concluded that “there are relatively few situations in which it is worth foregoing the first COVID-19 vaccine available in favor of a vaccine that becomes available later in the pandemic, even if the latter vaccine has a substantially higher efficacy.” (The Benefits of Vaccinating with the First Available COVID-19 Coronavirus Vaccine, Pages 605-613)

The data about the vaccines’ effectiveness has stayed the same after the experiment. Pfizer is 95% effective, Moderna is 94.1% effective, and J&J is 66.3% effective. Through the various trials in the experiment, researchers could see that if people got vaccinated now, the amount of future covid cases would decrease significantly compared to if everyone waited. This study also highlighted that there is a greater risk if the world waits and that there are rarely any situations in which it is worth foregoing the first Coronavirus vaccine.

The overall study design for this experiment is solid and should produce accurate data that will help inform the public about the best actions to take during this time. The only detail I would emphasize is that the model that reflects the U.S. population would have random selection and a proportional number of males and females. There are no outstanding flaws in this study design and was well put together by the scientists. This experiment was ethical and did show that it can be replicated in future studies. This information would be important to the audience because this study helps the world’s health and brings to light the benefits of getting the first available vaccine. The world is in shambles due to concerns about what is in the vaccine and if it would work. Publishing this study and sharing it to the public would soothe the public’s minds and give them better knowledge about how to stay healthy during this time. The next steps should be to test the future vaccines that will eventually be developed, and test if the first available vaccines were more effective or at least close to the effectiveness of the second set of available vaccines.

 

References:

 

  • Sarah M. Bartsch, Kelly J. O’Shea, Patrick T. Wedlock, Ulrich Strych, Marie C. Ferguson, Maria Elena Bottazzi, Samuel L. Randall, Sheryl S. Siegmund, Sarah N. Cox, Peter J. Hotez, Bruce Y. Lee, 2021. The Benefits of Vaccinating with the First Available COVID-19 Coronavirus Vaccine. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Volume 60. Pages 605-613.

 

  • Vines, Shaughanassee. “The Trust Gap Between the Coronavirus Vaccine and Communities of Color: What Midwives Can Do to Help.” Journal of midwifery & women’s health vol. 66,3 (2021): 295-297.

 

  • Sunil Thomas (ed.). 2021. Vaccine Design: Methods and Protocols: Volume 1: Vaccines for Human Diseases, Methods in Molecular Biology, vol. 1403.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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