Take Charge of Your Health - COVID Vaccine Update

Clearly, the dynamic now is very urgent
and we are driven by the goal to serve patients.
-Annaliesa Anderson, Pfizer

The coronavirus has changed the way we live in many ways. Many are obvious: less socializing, more mask-wearing, and lots of outdoor living. Some are more subtle: feelings of isolation, fear of the unknown, self-doubt. And that’s before we even get into the issues surrounding work-from-home, school-from-home, and financial uncertainty.  With all of these issues playing out in real time, we need to consider our personal strategy for vaccination.
 
While some of us have a pioneering personality and are always eager to try new things, others of us feel new things are risky and prefer things to be more predictable. Will we willingly lift our shirtsleeve to be vaccinated, not once, but potentially twice? Will we be comfortable with a vaccine that changes our DNA forever? Will we line up first or wait until more data is available? The time to think about these issues is now.
 
At the moment there are two major approaches to vaccine development and each is favored by two of the four companies furthest along in testing. The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines rely on messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA), the molecule that relays genetic instructions from DNA to the protein-making machinery of human cells. These vaccines are supposed to teach the body to produce viral proteins after injection, prompting the immune system to react and build up antibodies that protect us against the coronavirus. (This is a new horizon for medicine and in light of its uncertain long-term effects no mRNA vaccine has yet to win FDA approval.) The other vaccines currently in development follow a more typical approach in that they are made from a weakened or inactive virus, which stimulates the immune system to make antibodies and memory cells needed to provide long-term protection, in this case to the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Both Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca use the human adenovirus, (which causes the common cold), to deliver part of the spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus into cells to stimulate antibodies. 
 
Currently, the drug furthest along in the pipeline is Moderna’s mRNA-1273. When a virus invades our cells, it takes over the cell’s internal machinery in order to produce viral proteins to make more copies of itself. Initially, the infected cell forms a single viral protein chain. The protease enzyme cuts the protein chain in specific areas to produce fully functional working sub-units that are critical for the virus to replicate. Protease inhibitors are a class of antiviral drugs that shut down this protein-cutting process, thereby stopping a virus from multiplying. Moderna’s mRNA enters our cells and is used to produce viral antigen proteins from within the cell itself. This mimics the process by which natural viral infections occur, where information from viral genomes is used to produce viral proteins from within a cell. These antigens are what protect us from being overcome by the virus cells. Moderna is currently testing their 2-dose drug on 30,000 participants around the world.
 
In 2003, Pfizer scientists identified a mRNA compound as a potential treatment for the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic in China. Pfizer’s current compound in testing is specific to the proteases produced by coronaviruses, which are responsible for causing SARS in 2003 and COVID-19 today. Pfizer scientists believe that they have identified a critical enzyme that a coronavirus needs to replicate and a potent inhibitor against it for SARS. Pfizer is currently testing 44,000 participants around the globe with two doses of their mRNA drug BNT162.
 
Johnson & Johnson’s (J&J) offering to the vaccine toolbox provides protection from COVID-19 after one injection instead of two. Their vaccine uses the human adenovirus (which causes the common cold) to deliver part of the spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus into cells to provide protection by stimulating antibody development. Currently J&J is testing 60,000 individuals worldwide and anticipate having findings concurrent with the other vaccine leaders owing to the timing advantage of one injection versus two.
 
AstraZeneca’s drug AZD1222 uses a replication-deficient chimpanzee viral vector based on a weakened version of the adenovirus that causes infections in chimpanzees and contains the genetic material of the SARS-CoV-2 virus spike protein. In keeping with traditional vaccines, after vaccination with AZD1222 the surface spike protein is produced, which in turn primes our immune system to attack the SARS-CoV-2 virus if it later infects the body. AstraZeneca is also a two dose pharmaceutical in Phase III testing with 30,000 participants worldwide.
 
Scientists will assess whether these vaccines work by comparing the infection rates of people who got the vaccine with those who received placebo. In order to be considered for approval, the FDA has said that a coronavirus vaccine must prove to be at least 50 percent more effective than a placebo in a large-scale trial.

Most experts expect that more than one vaccine candidate will advance into the treatment pipeline, hopefully within the next six months. Recognizing our own version of risk aversion and feelings about preventative medicine will help us determine which course of treatment to follow. Do Take Charge of Your Health and speak to your practitioner as more information becomes available to determine what approach is right for you.

Remember,  while vaccination may initially appear scary or fraught with anxiety, vaccination has been proven to be the safest and most cost-effective public health initiative undertaken by society, mostly eliminating such threats as polio, smallpox, measles, HPV, hep C, and others. While the success of Operation Warp-Speed and the remarkable level of global cooperation has moved the coronavirus vaccine toward adoption at record speed, the true success of the vaccine will be in its safety profile as well as in its ability to combat this deadly disease. Like most of us, we are ready to re-claim our lives through vaccination and return to the ones we love with a renewed sense of appreciation.

As always, join us on the Health-E³ website blog page. We look forward to hearing your thoughts and experiences. Feel free to ask questions about anything on the website or suggest ideas for additional helpful information. And remember, it's up to you to Take Charge of Your Health.