At a time when the number of people infected with the new Corona virus (Covid-19) has exceeded 4,347,015 infections around the world, and deaths have exceeded 297,197, millions around the world are still eager to hear one piece of news: “The discovery of the Corona vaccine.” So where have scientists reached in developing tools to examine the virus, and also developing a vaccine to confront it? Why the examination and vaccine specifically? Because the capabilities of governments are now being spent in parallel on two paths: ways to detect infected people, and others to protect those who are not infected, and these are the only two paths that must be taken to stop the spread of the deadly pandemic around the world.
Start signal
First, a distinction must be made between the terms testing and prevention, which are the two aspects in which the world faces a clear problem in the face of the spread of the virus. Screening tools are tests conducted on people suspected of being infected with the Coronavirus, and aim to discover their infection with the virus. As for the vaccine, it is a preparation given to a person to create immunity in his body against a specific disease. It consists of disease germs (bacteria or viruses) that have been killed or weakened. When they enter the body, they stimulate the immune system to form antibodies to a specific disease and immunological memory, so that the immune system remembers the pathogenic microbe and attacks it and eliminates it immediately when it enters the body the next time. These are the strongest serious attempts currently taking place in the world to search for an effective vaccine to confront the virus:
World Health Organization
The head of the organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said in a press conference via closed-circuit television, in the Swiss city of Geneva, that finding a Corona vaccine will take at least a period ranging between 12 and 18 months, explaining that the lack of medical protective equipment constitutes the greatest threat to joint international efforts with regard to saving people’s lives. While the development of a safe vaccine is still subject to appropriate tests and requires at least 12 to 18 months, Ghebreyesus indicated that tests are currently underway to find drugs that can be used to treat those infected, noting that there are patients from Norway and Spain who are among the first to decide to undergo what the organization described as a solidarity test during which the safety and effectiveness of four different types of drugs or drug combinations will be compared.
United States
In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration approved the use of a new test to diagnose the Corona virus that allows results to be obtained after fifteen minutes, and Abbott, the company that manufactures the test, stated that it intends to distribute fifty thousand tests per day. The tests will be conducted using light and portable devices manufactured by the company that can be quickly transported to the areas most infected with the virus. The company expects to produce five million tests every month, as the new test is the fastest in terms of showing results and is approved by the US Food and Drug Administration.
Germany
In Germany, the Max Planck Institute is conducting a test in hospitals for a new serum to determine its effectiveness in resisting the Corona virus. This serum was originally invented against tuberculosis, as researchers in the Department of Infection Biology at the German Max Planck Institute for Scientific Research seek to verify the effectiveness of a serum created by researchers at the institute and bearing the name “VPM 1002” (VPM1002), in protecting against infection with the Corona virus. The test for the effectiveness of the serum will be conducted in several hospitals in Germany on a group of elderly people, as well as workers in the health services sector, after discussing the matter with the competent authorities. These two groups were specifically chosen because they are most at risk of infection with the emerging coronavirus, according to the Max Planck Institute website. By experimenting with the vaccine designed to protect against tuberculosis, the institute seeks to provide a temporary solution until a vaccine specifically designed to prevent infection with the Coronavirus is found. The serum’s increased effectiveness and its high degree of safety of use give hope that it will also be able to alleviate the symptoms of coronavirus infection.
Another German study
Also in Germany, a study will be launched on more than 100,000 people to find out whether they have developed immunity to the new Corona virus, allowing the spread of the virus to be assessed, according to what the spokeswoman for the main institute in charge of carrying out said. Researchers will analyze whether these samples will secrete antibodies to Covid-19 as evidence of the person being infected with the disease and recovering from it. Gerard Cruz, who heads the Department of Epidemiology at the Helmholtz Center, explained in an interview with the German magazine that “something similar to a vaccine booklet can be given to people who have developed immunity, allowing them to resume their work even in light of continued restrictions” on movement.
Russia
The Russian Biomedical Agency said that it had developed seven prototypes for vaccines against the Corona virus, and the Russian (TASS) news agency, in its English version, attributed to Veronika Skavoretsova, director of the agency, saying, “To date, the Russian Biological Medical Agency has developed seven prototypes of genetically engineered vaccines collected from integrated proteins, each of which contains antigenic determinants, that is, parts that interact with the virus.” She added that the current task is to choose the most effective vaccine model from the seven models, adding that the vaccine that will be ready will not be available for 11 months, noting that scientists intend to complete all tests by next July, then move on to pre-clinical trials, and “we plan to reach the first and second phase by the end of this year or the first quarter of next year,” she says.
Iran
Director of the Technology Development Center in the Iranian Ministry of Health, Hossein Vatanpour, announced that an Iranian company produced equipment or devices to test and examine the Corona virus, and these products were put on the market. He added that the new equipment was evaluated at the Iranian Pasteur Institute and licenses were issued to launch it in the markets, indicating that in the first stage, twenty thousand of these equipment were produced to test the Corona virus, and that the Iranian producing company has the capabilities to export this equipment to other countries.
Türkiye
The Turkish University of Health Sciences announced the development of a new treatment for the Corona virus, in cooperation with the pharmaceutical and biotechnology company VSY. According to the Turkish Anatolia Agency. University President Professor Cevdet Erdol said in a statement, “We have done diligent and continuous work in the field of scientific research and monitoring the spread of the epidemic, in order to develop a treatment for this epidemic and bring it to the production stage.” He pointed out that “the new treatment is called (TR-C 19), and was developed earlier in the laboratory, and is ready to be applied to volunteers within a short period after obtaining the licenses.”
Arab countries are absent
What is striking about this statistic is the absence of any active Arab role in these attempts, which reflects the reality of deteriorating Arab scientific and medical research, which the new Corona virus pandemic has put to a real test of its effectiveness and ability to confront real updates, away from the propaganda of government media and series of regime-busting achievements.
