E-Book Racing Against COVID-19

BY:
NUR ARMIZA ANIS AZMI (D20172080212)
FAHIMAH BINTI SHANON (D20172080216)
NUR FATIN LIYANA BINTI MURAD (D20172080218)
RYINA SAFINA BINTI MAING (D20172080219)

LECTURER:
PUAN MARINA BINTI MOKHTAR

COVID-19

Vaccine Name: Pfizer-BioNTech
Vaccine Type: mRNA

MANUFACTURER
BioNTech, Fosun Pharma, Pfizer

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN
United States

HOW IT WORKS?
Instructs the body's cells to produce a
protein that triggers an immune
response.
It teaches our cells to produce a 'spike
protein' which is found on the surface of
the coronavirus. The body's immune
system then recognises this protein and
develops an antibody to protect against
it. Unlike traditional vaccines, this type
contains only synthetic components, not
a live virus.

NUMBER OF DOSES
2 Doses, 3 Weeks Apart

EFFICACY RATE
95%

ADVANTAGE? DISADVANTAGE?
• Produced easily and quickly • Some mRNA vaccines require
• No live components, synthetically extremely cold storage conditions
produced • Used for the first time as a vaccine in
• Triggers an adaptive immune response medical history

COVID-19

Vaccine Name: AstraZeneca
Vaccine Type: Viral Vector

PRODUCED BY
AstraZeneca
Oxford University

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN
United Kingdom

HOW IT WORKS?
It uses a modified virus to deliver a
small portion of the virus' genetic
code to the body's cells, teaching
them to produce the spike protein
found in the coronavirus and build an
immune response to it.

NUMBER OF DOSES
2 Doses, 4 Weeks Apart

EFFICACY RATE
62% to 90%

ADVANTAGE? DISADVANTAGE?
• Proven technology • Complex manufacturing process
• Triggers an adaptive immunity • Important to make sure viral
response that is more effective vector used is safe

COVID-19

Vaccine Name: Sinovac
Vaccine Type: Inactivated Virus

ADVANTAGE? PRODUCED BY
• Proven technology Sinovac
• No live components
• Suitable for those with weak COUNTRY OF ORIGIN
immune systems China
• Easily produced
HOW IT WORKS?
It uses killed virus particles which are
killed to stimulate an immune
response to coronavirus. It is suitable
for those with weak immune systems.

NUMBER OF DOSES
2 Doses, 2 Weeks Apart

EFFICACY RATE
50.4% to 91.25%

DISADVANTAGE?
High cost to produce

COVID-19

VACCINES & CWoHleEridMge IMCedAicaLl CEenNterGINEERING

In the early stage of vaccine
production, scientists and clinicians
need to actually discover the
vaccine and show that it is both safe
and effective.
Once it is clear that it actually is safe
and effective, the chemical
engineers (and many others) will get
involved in figuring out how to
produce hundreds of millions of
doses in a way that ensures the
vaccine continues to be safe and
effective.
The vaccines also need to be
consistently produced at large
quantities with the desired
properties and purity.



INITIAL DEVELOPMENT

COVID-19 is caused by a
coronavirus that is similar to
other coronaviruses that
cause diseases

Severe Acute Respiratory Middle East respiratory
Syndrome (SARS) syndrome (MERS)

The past research studied by the scientists upon coronavirus
vaccines helped them to develop the current COVID-19 vaccines.

CLINICAL TRIALS

There are 3 phases of clinical trials involved
to ensure the vaccines are safe and effective.

They speed up the process by overlapping
these phases so the people can be vaccinated
as quickly as possible to control the pandemic.
Moreover, not a single trial phase has been
skipped.

The volunteers for clinical trials of COVID-19
vaccines reached tens of thousands of people
from different ages, races and ethnicities.

Clinical trials are done to compare the outcomes
between vaccinated people and unvaccinated
people and also how many people get sick.

Due to fast spread of COVID-19 disease, the vaccine
clinical have been conducted much more quickly.

The results from trials have proved the COVID-19
vaccines are effective.

As there are no serious safety concerns even after
more than 8 weeks of vaccination.

EMERGENCY USE AUTHORIZATION

• Before vaccines are available to people across the
world, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
evaluates the results of clinical studies to make sure
the vaccines meet FDA’s safety and effectiveness
standards.

• Thus, these vaccines are granted with the Emergency
Use Authorizations (EUAs).

• The EUAs have approved the vaccines to be rapidly
distributed for use and at the same time maintaining
the same high safety standards required for all
vaccines.

MANUFACTURING AND
DISTRIBUTION

The United States (US) government has
invested significant resources in both the
manufacture and distribution of COVID-
19 vaccines. So, the manufacturing of
vaccines can begin even though they are
still in the third phase of clinical trials.

Once the FDA has authorized
each vaccine, the distribution
of vaccines can begin as soon
as possible.

TRACKING SAFETY USING
VACCINE MONITORING SYSTEMS

For safety purposes, several monitoring systems
continue to track the vaccines as soon as they
are distributed outside of clinical trials. The
ongoing efforts to monitor them continuously
as millions of people have received COVID-19
vaccines.

Certain people experience differently once
vaccinated, some of them do not have side
effects but many people have reported mild
effects after COVID-19 vaccination.

Common reactions when
vaccinated

headache Swelling at the
site of injection
Chills or fever

TRACKING SAFETY USING
VACCINE MONITORING SYSTEMS

• Early monitoring of vaccine safety did not find any
unexpected patterns or other safety issues.

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would monitor
several reporting systems such as the Vaccine Adverse
Event Reporting System (VAERS), Vaccine Safety
Datalink (VSD) and v-safe.

• They assist with safety issues upon vaccines since they
are given to patients all over the world.

WAYS TO DEVELOP A VIRUS
VACCINE

When someone is injected with a vaccine, this
exposes the human body to a safe, modified
version of the virus that causes the disease.

This causes the immune system to produce
antibodies and proteins that can prevent
the pathogens from infecting the cells

The immune system would remember how
to fight against the invaders. The scientists
use various methods to create vaccine
formulation and then test them for safety
and effectiveness.

The conventional method is to insert a modified version of
the virus or portions of it into a solution that will be
injected into the body. However, this technique is
considered slow. A quicker technique but less proven
involving newer genetic engineering processes is inserting
a blueprint of the virus’s genes into the solution.

Isolating a virus
particle

Altering it to Map the virus’s genetic Obtain the blueprint of genetically
engineer particular virus genes
produce vaccine sequence

Weaken or Kill or Make use Insert Insert Insert
attenuated deactivate of the blueprint blueprint blueprint
the virus virus’s into DNA into RNA
virus plasmid in
subunits lipid adenovirus

PRECLINICAL TRIALS Put related particles
into a solution, then
Do test in lab
cultures and animals run the test

Is it safe?

No Yes

Does it cause immune system cells Stop
to develop antibodies that can testing
recognize and bind to the virus?
No

CLINICAL TRIALS Does it cause immune system No
Human testing cells to develop antibodies that
Yes can recognize and bind to the Stop
virus? testing

Phase 1 No Phase 2 No Phase 3 Yes
Yes Yes
Is the Is the Is it safe to
vaccine safe vaccine safe prevent
large
to use? to use?
Are negative Is the numbers of
side effects immune people from
system infection and
avoided? functioning
Are properly? disease?
Is it the right
antibodies dose? People tested:
produced by 10,000s+
the immune People tested:
100s
system?

People tested:
10-100

An effective vaccine must first be approved and given licensed by regulators,
before proceeding to mass production and testing the product quality

Ways to Overcome COVID-19
Vaccine Issues

Issue 1

Issue in the distribution of COVID-19 vaccine

Global COVID-19 vaccination was began in December
2020, while in Malaysia the first dose vaccination started in

February 2021. Until 10 May 2021, only 4.1% of world
population and 2.3% of Malaysia’s total population have fully

vaccinated (Mathieu, Ritchie, Ortiz-Ospina, et al., 2021).
The process of vaccinating around the world takes very long
time because it involves large numbers of people. However,

in a community there are groups of people who are more
prone to COVID-19 infection especially those who are

frontline workers. Besides, there are also groups of people
who have higher risk for severe illness from COVID-19

especially the older adults. Thus, the distribution of COVID-
19 vaccine must be planned more systematically to avoid

more losses especially in human health.

Ways to Overcome COVID-19
Vaccine Issues

Solution

Issue in the distribution of COVID-19 vaccine

One possible solution to address the issue is by prioritize
the priority groups and the high-risk groups in vaccination
programme. This can be accomplished by setting three
phases of COVID-19 vaccination programme in a country.
The first phase should be given to the priority groups which

are the frontline workers including hospital staff, police,
teacher and others. Protecting the frontline workers is
important because they have significant role in fighting
COVID-19 disease in order to keep the community safe and
the economy in motion. The second phase of COVID-19
vaccination should be given to the high-risk groups which
are the older adults. This is because, this group of peoples
tend to have greatest risk for severe illness from COVID-19.
Lastly, after the vaccination programme for priority and risk
groups were completed, the third phase of vaccination that

involves the country citizen can be implemented.

Ways to Overcome COVID-19
Vaccine Issues

Issue 2

Issue in the acceptance of COVID-19 vaccine

The production of COVID-19 vaccine is one of the efforts to
prevent the transmission of COVID-19 disease. COVID-19

vaccines help to protect human body by developing
immunity to the virus that causes COVID-19 without having
to experience sickness. However, vaccination refusal is not

a new issue in the society. Sallam (2021) has conducted
survey studies on COVID-19 vaccine acceptance rates in 33
different countries. The results shows, each country have a

different rates of acceptance. The highest COVID-19
vaccine acceptance rates were found in Ecuador with
97.0% and the lowest COVID-19 vaccine acceptance rates
were found in Kuwait which is only 23.6%. The issue of
vaccine hesitancy in the community can be the major
hindrance in controlling the transmission of COVID-19

disease.

Ways to Overcome COVID-19
Vaccine Issues

Solution

Issue in the acceptance of COVID-19 vaccine

The public’s rejection of COVID-19 vaccine is due to the
lake of trust in the arrangements for developing and

distributing the vaccine globally. It was further compounded
by various negative sentiments and incorrect facts about the
vaccine that were spread in the social media and became a

public reading. Because of these reasons, many peoples
who believe the wrong facts hesitant and reject the vaccine.

The possible solutions for this issue is by educating the
society about the correct facts of the vaccines that were
produced to achieve proper control of the pandemic. The
community also need to be taught on the correct medium to
get valid information about COVID-19 vaccine and not to be
easily influenced by the negative sentiments. Lastly, in order
to reduce the spread of fake news, the government can take
legal action against the individuals involved especially in

social media. This actions could help in ensuring the
community gets only authentic information about the

COVID-19 vaccine.

Ways to Overcome COVID-19
Vaccine Issues

Issue 3

Issue in the use of COVID-19 vaccine

Apart from the issues of distribution and acceptance of the
COVID-19 vaccine, there are also issue that arise related to

the effectiveness of the use of the vaccine produced.
According to Griffin (2021), AstraZeneca vaccine have 79%

effective at preventing symptomatic cases of COVID-19.
However, scientists in Germany found that the AstraZeneca
vaccine causes rare but devastating blood clots that gobble

up the body's supply of platelets (Brenda, 2021). In April
2021, more than 220 cases of unusual blood cloth and low
level of platelets in patients who receive the vaccine found
by European regulators. Due to this reason, some country
including Denmark, United States and Canada paused the

AstraZeneca vaccination.

Ways to Overcome COVID-19
Vaccine Issues

Solution

Issue in the use of COVID-19 vaccine

The effectiveness of vaccine must be concern as it can
affect human health. The issue in the vaccine safety could
also lead to the hesitancy towards the COVID-19 vaccine
among communities. In order to address the issue, COVID-

19 vaccine must be developed and distributed ethically.
Adequate clinical study to the vaccines must be executed to
test the effectiveness and possible side effects before given
to the humans. This aims to ensure that the vaccine given

benefits human health and does not brings any harmful
effect to human.

REFERENCES

Brenda Goodman. (2021). Scientist Find how AstraZeneca Vaccine Causes
Clots. Retrieved from https://www.webmd.com/vaccines/covid-19-
vaccine/news/20210422/scientists-find-how-astrazeneca-vaccine-causes-
clots

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2021. COVID-19 Vaccination.
[online] Available at: <https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-
ncov/vaccines/distributing/steps-ensure-safety.html> [Accessed 9 May 2021].

Griffin S. (2021). AstraZeneca vaccine prevents 79% of symptomatic disease
and 100% of severe disease. Retrieved from
https://www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.n793

Gupta, I., & Baru, R. (2020). Economics & ethics of the COVID-19 vaccine:
How prepared are we?. The Indian journal of medical research, 152(1 & 2),
153–155. https://doi.org/10.4103/ijmr.IJMR_3581_20

Mathieu, E., Ritchie, H., Ortiz-Ospina, E. et al. (2021). A global database of
COVID-19 vaccinations. Retrieved from https://ourworldindata.org/covid-
vaccinations

Sallam M. (2021). COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy Worldwide: A Concise
Systematic Review of Vaccine Acceptance Rates. Vaccines, 9(2), 160.
https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines9020160

Schmidt, C., 2021. Genetic Engineering Could Make a COVID-19 Vaccine in
Months Rather Than Years. [online] Scientific American. Available at:
<https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/genetic-engineering-could-make-
a-covid-19-vaccine-in-months-rather-than-years1/> [Accessed 9 May 2021].

Who.int. 2021. The different types of COVID-19 vaccines. [online] Available at:
<https://www.who.int/news-room/feature-stories/detail/the-race-for-a-covid-19-
vaccine-explained> [Accessed 9 May 2021].