HEALTH

Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine:  a reality for Costa Rica  

By: Karol Melissa Cerdas-Mejías & Amanda Morales-López  

Currently, the race to test, produce and release vaccines for the COVID-19 virus is the main priority for the scientific communities around the world. Right now, according to the World Health Organization there are 47 vaccine candidates in clinical evaluation and nearly 155 on a preclinical phase.  Ten of these candidates are more advanced and in the third stage, which is where they test the vaccines on the population, to verify their safety and their efficiency.  In Costa Rica, the government signed accord with Covax to help with the supply of the vaccine, and it also has accords with Oxford/Astrazeneca and Pfizer/Biotech, where for this last ones it is planned to provide 3 million doses, that would cover at least 1 and a half million people. It is estimated to cost over $70 million, including the equipment that´s necessary like the freezers and the syringes and other elements for the vaccination. It is expected to have the most vulnerable population vaccinated in 7-8 months, starting in the first trimester of 2021; and apart from that, in the investment plan is included a total of doses for approximately 3 million people.

The COVID-19 vaccine launched by Pfizer is called mRNA BNT162b2 and has a complex mechanism yet easy to explain. mRNA is a molecule that encodes a protein or a molecule of interest, in this vaccine case, scientists instead of using living Sars-CoV-2 or a part of the virus, created a mRNA that can be transformed into a Sars-CoV-2 protein with no virulence. This strategy allows our living cells to take the mRNA, produce the protein and so our immune system will start producing antibodies against the virus. This way, if we get sick, our body is going to be ready to attack it and outperform the coronavirus before people get symptoms. This render has already been on medical trials, had a 90% of effectivity and is ready to be applied. It’s important to know that other companies are launching vaccines too, another competitive vaccine is the one from Moderna that works with mRNA and 94% of effectivity.