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.

There are some worry on the part of some scientists that political pressure on the need for scientist to produce results as soon as possible may influence the efficacy of the vaccine and may even lead for some to ignore some significant defect or side effects of the vaccine. This scenario would be catastrophic and patients will suffer for it and not the politicians who are ignorant of this.

Although there are a lot of of vaccines and treatment being developed, let us take note of some of the ones being discussed in the news:

• HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE: Although this drug has been controversial due to the involvement of the US President in promoting it, Dr. Gupta's article in CNN noted that there is an actual pre-print report from French Researchers posted online. According to Oransky's Retraction Watch website, the study was actually criticized for confusing data, poor protocols, and not clearly accounting for patient outcomes. There is also a another study about hydroxychloroquine published in medRxiv but its authors have withdrawn the said study. Newer studies though revealed that NO prophylactic effect or treatment was noted against COVID-19 and that its side effects are potentially dangerous to patients.
• DEXAMETHASONE: the pre-print and early study for this drug is actually more promising than hydroxychloroquine. They have found that mortality for patients on ventilators was reduced by 1/3.

Source: Science by Press Release: When the Story Gets Ahead of the Science by Dr. Sanjay Gupta at CNN