Breaking news coronavirus – Effectiveness of Sputnik V Vaccine

Every one should remain in the knowhow of breaking news coronavirus. From the last year, the coronavirus is involved in the destruction of life as we know it. The virus not only affected the health of the general public, but it also had a major role in the wrecking of economic and social life. The year 2020 saw how the virus took many lives and how it also managed to make people poorer than before. The social and economic aspects are not in the control of medical health practitioners, but they helped built different types of vaccines that can save the lives of many others.

Coronavirus

Before introducing the different types of vaccines, we should study how the virus works? The mechanism of action will help us understand better the workings of vaccines. The virus belongs to the family Coronaviridae. There four type of coronavirus: alphacoronavirus, betacoronavirus, deltacoronavirus, and gammacoronavirus. The alphacoronavirus and betacoronavirus infect mammals. Deltacoronavirus infects birds. Gammacoronavirus infect both mammals and birds.

Structure of Virus

Coronavirus is a single strand of RNA that is packed inside a helical capsid. Their strand of RNA is longer than all other RNA viruses. The word corona gives to this virus because of the position of spikes in the form of a crown. The S protein is responsible for the formation of the spikes. The virus enters when these spikes come in contact with the host cell membranes. A protein dissolves the host cell membrane giving entry to the genome into the host cell. Thus replication starts and the infection spreads through the body, and symptoms appear.

Symptoms of coronavirus

When the virus enters the host’s body, it takes about 14 days for the symptoms to appear. The time we are living in, we should remain vigilant to anybody changes and should consult a doctor if one of these symptoms appears:

Fatigue
Cough
Shortness of breath
Fever
The disappearance of the sense of smell and taste
Diarrhoea
Vomiting
Nausea

In case of the appearance of all or one of the above-given symptoms, one should consult the doctors and start treatment as soon as possible. No definite treatment has been found as of yet.

Vaccines

As no treatment is successful in eradicating virus has been found. The best possible way to avoid corona is the vaccine. Vaccination has saved many lives from the day they were discovered. Many diseases have been eradicated from the planet as a whole due to the use of vaccination. Diseases such as cholera and hepatitis that took thousands of lives are almost non-existent due to vaccines.

Vaccines provide acquired immunity to certain infectious diseases. The discovery of vaccines has been a blessing upon humankind. Polio that caused havoc on the people is now disappearing from the earth.

Corona Virus Vaccine

As soon as the virus spread through Earth, struggles were done to cure the disease. Many companies started making vaccines, and clinical trials were done on many of the vaccines. Many of the vaccines did not survive the clinical trial stage. But vaccines such as the Pfizer vaccine, Moderna vaccine, Sputnik V vaccine, and AstraZeneca vaccine passed those trials. But how does the vaccine works?

Mechanism of Action

Vaccines inoculated into our bodies were dead or weakened micro-organisms that produced an immune response in the body. The new mRNA vaccine works differently from these vaccines. The mRNA vaccine teaches our cells to make a protein that resembles the virus. The body then produces an immune response against that protein or part of the protein. The mRNA vaccines are injected into the upper arm muscles. The cells take information from the mRNA and produce a protein that the immune system recognizes as an intruder and attacks that protein.

Types of Covid Vaccines

Different corona vaccines that are being currently used are:

Pfizer-BioNTech
Moderna
Sputnik V
AstraZeneca
Johnsons & Johnsons

Pfizer is considered the most affected vaccine, but it isn’t easy to compare different vaccines. Where Pfizer vaccine is 95.3% effective according to CDC, Sputnik V is 97.6% effective against coronavirus according to the Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Biology.

Sputnik V Vaccine

According to Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Biology and the Russian Direct Investment Fund, Sputnik V is 97.6 % effective. This data was collected from the group of people that took both vaccine shots. Sputnik V vaccine contains the gene that encodes the S protein responsible for the entry of mRNA into the host cell. The vaccine uses two vectors. The recombinant adenovirus type 26 and type 5 are the vectors used in the Sputnik V vaccine. During the first shot adenovirus type, 26 is used as a vector. On the 21^st-day adenovirus type, five was used as a vector to boost immunity. Sixty countries have approved the use of Sputnik V vaccines. March 2021 saw the production license of Sputnik V given to India, China, South Korea, and Brazil.

Sputnik V- AstraZeneca Clinical Trials

In December 2020, RDIF and AstraZeneca signed a contract to improve the effectiveness of the vaccine. It was written in the agreement that two doses are given during the vaccination, one dose will be from the Sputnik V vaccine, and the 2^nd dose will be from AstraZeneca. Clinical trials with this formula have been started in many countries. The trial will go on for six months. On February 2021, Sputnik V’s official Twitter account tweeted that the trials have already started. This is a breaking news coronavirus.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it should be established that the comparison between different vaccines cannot be done. Different vaccines are available in different countries. There are many ways the effectiveness of a vaccine can be altered. In the USA, most people gravitate towards the Pfizer vaccine. For the time being, CDC has also stopped the inoculation of the Johnsons & Johnsons vaccine. Time will tell which vaccines work best.

22 Apr 2021