In 1918, a deadly flu wiped away 100 million people from the face of the earth. ( An estimate.) It was 4% of the then population. If I project this to 2020, that would count up to 280 million deaths today. Unprecedented.
In 2020, another flu known as Covid 19 has already affected 100 million people. ( 103,218,023 have been tested positive till this article is written.) That may be the tip of iceberg. At least 22 lakh positive people ( 22,31,202) have already succumbed to the virus.
But this time there is a huge difference.
Back in the 20th century, it had taken 80 long years to just sequence the genome of that deadly pathogen. It was only in 1997 we could label the pathogen to be a H1N1 virus.
Jeffery Taubenberg looking at the complete genome of 1918 Spanish flu in July 1997. It took 80 years to sequence the genome.
National Museum of Health and Medicine Online Exhibit – MIS 377212.
Fast forward to present day.
The first hospitalisation of an unknown pneumonia case in China was officially reported to the world only on Dec 27, 2019. Despite China’s reluctance to share full facts, USA was able to sequence the whole genome of the virus by jan 10, 2020. Computers were ready with models of 4 vaccines as early as May. And early clinical trials kicked off in June. Pfizer was the first to launch its phase 3 trials on July 27 and was also the first to get Emergency authorisations on December 2, 2020.
The vaccine was loaded into a syringe for inoculation as early as Dec 8.
From 10th January to 8th December it is less than 11 months.
Before the calendar year could be replaced on your table top, mankind is ready with 4 vaccines to fight the virus.
That is the marvel of modern medicine.
So what is the legacy of the Covid 19 vaccine ?
In the near future, like the weather forecast we shall be able to track and forecast any new epidemic likely to afflict the mankind.
We already know that throughout the history of mankind, animals have been an important source of infectious diseases. 90% of epidemics in humans are zoonoses.
So in future we shall have professional virus sleuths. Their job will be to go into the deep rainforests of Amazon or the wet markets of China to locate such zoonotic viruses. Certain peculiar animal human interaction as happened in the wet markets of Wuhan that promoted one wild viruses to run a massive epidemic. It has happened at least four time in this century- SARS 1, MERS, Ebola and Zika.
So in near future before an epidemic starts, we shall be able to design its vaccine, be it a Hanta virus or a Nipah or Zika. It is like facing the cyclone Fani with accurate pre warning system. No longer epidemics will be scourges of mankind any more.
We can say goodbye to huge pandemics for ever. Our kids will read about covid 19 in comic books only, just like we have already shifted the deadly small pox from medical books to history books. Soon Polio will follow suit.
That will be the true legacy of the present Covid Vaccine.
Dr Ramakanta's Ideas 