UPDATE on COVID-19 Vaccine Development

With the advent of fast-paced technology and media reports, we can surmise that with the COVID-19 pandemic, the development of a vaccine can also be at a record speed but reading an article by Dr. Sanjay Gupta at CNN, this reality is grim so far regarding COVID-19 Vaccine Development.

1 Revealing Point: According to the Milken Institute, although there are 254 treatments and 172 vaccines currently in development to fight COVID-19, so far, there is only 1 PUBLISHED STUDY of a vaccine which is trialed in Humans. Other vaccines/treatment in development are either press-releases or pre-print reports.

Photo Credit: European Pharmaceutical Review

For those who have no idea on the significance of a Published Study on vaccine development or any other thing basically is this - published studies are subjected to peer review, which by essence brings down the expertise of most if not all of the science disciplines to screen this studies and POINT SOME POTENTIAL ERRORS of the study that may be unintentional and also makes the study and eventually the science or the vaccine BETTER.

No Approved Therapeutic Claim/Use!

I had always wanted to talk about this with my patients but I have not had the time to sufficiently discuss this.

As a medical doctor I cannot and will not endorse any product which has a 'No Therapeutic Use' on its label. I am for any thing herbal and natural but it does not mean that I will disregard the safety of my patients.

I have a professor in Medschool that is an advocate of herbal medicine but she is also a medical doctor. And so, while advocating for herbal medicine, she tediously explained the process and the science of preparing an herbal medicine, and so let's take some important points about it:

• Herbal medicine preparations should be an exact ....science. This simply means that exact measurements should be used. Meaning if you prepare (let's take for an example Sambong leaves) leaves, and you are instructed to take 5 leaves. You should take leaves with proportionally same size with each other. There are some preparations that prescribes the exact size of the leaves like for example (I am only hypothesizing here) Sambong leaves should have 1-inches leaves while recommendations for Malunggay leaves is only 1-cm leaves. AND there are different preparations for barks, roots, fruits, etc.
• Even the procedures in preparations should be exact. As my mentor explained, preparing a decoction is also exact meaning a certain decoction is prescribed with a 1 cup water while others are prescribed with a 1 glass water (yes a cup is different from a glass!). If you boil a decoction for 30 minutes and you start the time from the moment you pour the water into the pot, it may be a whole lot different if you start the 30-minute time on the moment that the water boils. Plus there's a difference if the instruction is like 'You boil the leaves with 2 cups water until the point that the water remaining is only 1 cup.'
• The time of the day when you pick up a leaf/root/bark matters. We had been advised that the perfect time to pick leaves is in the morning just before the sun rises as the leaves has the perfect consistency to it.