History, the Media and Vaccination
By Jane Cohen and Reetesh Sudhakar, 6/29/2020
Media & the Push for a Cure
With the COVID-19 pandemic shutting down much of the world and infecting millions, scientists are hurrying to synthesize potential vaccines, but have ultimately yielded no concrete solutions to date. Because governments are pressing their countries to re-open despite health concerns, the need for a vaccine has risen greatly. However, vaccines are extremely difficult and time consuming to synthesize, and the misrepresentation from the media on this topic has faltered the development of working cures.
The grim reality behind vaccine development is that it takes time. There are numerous aspects that could go awry: clinical trials could be inconclusive, tests could be inaccurate, and humans have never developed a new vaccine in under 4 years. Potential solutions with existing drugs have been rendered ineffective: the World Health Organization reported that Remdesivir, a drug used for broad-spectrum antiviral activity, was not beneficial for severe COVID-19 patients. However, because the research was published preemptively, other researchers in Chicago ran a similar trial with positive results. However, the public wasn’t informed that there was no placebo group, putting the positive result in doubt.
Furthermore, there has also been a sharp increase in demand for hydroxychloroquine, a drug used to treat the immune system. However, this has led to severe shortages in reserves of the drug for those who need it to treat lupus, an inflammatory disease. Trump promoted this drug and publicly stated that he had taken it regularly to treat himself, leading to a sudden increase in demand for the drug, often used to treat malaria. The media spread word that the United States had found a cure, sensationalizing the untested drug. Initial tests ran in late May confirmed, however, that hydroxychloroquine was not preventative of COVID-19. As a result of the media’s praise for the drug, researchers had to spend valuable time to validate these claims while the death toll rose across the world.
Although the drug has shown to be ineffective against COVID-19, the president still touts its successes, announcing recently that the Trump Administration would be sending 2 million doses to Brazil. Rather than researching other potential solutions with the current increased demand for a cure, the sensationalizing of a false cure has resulted in a lack of progress to save severe COVID-19 patients. The general public has thus been swarmed with the merits of hydroxychloroquine, distracting populations from developing real solutions with its high demand. Rather than researching newer drugs and vaccines, countries have now been focused on this false solution as a result of the praise that it’s received from the US president and the media.
Normally, researchers study hundreds of therapies and potential vaccines to develop a novel cure. But because of the media’s portrayal of false solutions, scientists have spent far more time and resources fact-checking the validity of these drugs. With a significant timeline to develop a typical vaccine, scientists are currently facing immense pressure to expedite their research to find a solution. Hastily starting trials and forgoing academic research can maximize the efficiency of the timeframe, but minimizes the probability that an effective vaccine will be created. A typical timeline would generate a vaccine by 2036, but governments are pushing for a cure by late 2021 to reopen their nations.
Without a vaccine, it will take significantly longer for nations to revitalize their economies. However, continually pushing with false solutions merely serves to distract researchers from progress to test their viability. The crucial race to find a cure or vaccine eventually transforms into a game to satisfy investors and shareholders in light of falsified solutions.
The grim reality behind vaccine development is that it takes time. There are numerous aspects that could go awry: clinical trials could be inconclusive, tests could be inaccurate, and humans have never developed a new vaccine in under 4 years. Potential solutions with existing drugs have been rendered ineffective: the World Health Organization reported that Remdesivir, a drug used for broad-spectrum antiviral activity, was not beneficial for severe COVID-19 patients. However, because the research was published preemptively, other researchers in Chicago ran a similar trial with positive results. However, the public wasn’t informed that there was no placebo group, putting the positive result in doubt.
Furthermore, there has also been a sharp increase in demand for hydroxychloroquine, a drug used to treat the immune system. However, this has led to severe shortages in reserves of the drug for those who need it to treat lupus, an inflammatory disease. Trump promoted this drug and publicly stated that he had taken it regularly to treat himself, leading to a sudden increase in demand for the drug, often used to treat malaria. The media spread word that the United States had found a cure, sensationalizing the untested drug. Initial tests ran in late May confirmed, however, that hydroxychloroquine was not preventative of COVID-19. As a result of the media’s praise for the drug, researchers had to spend valuable time to validate these claims while the death toll rose across the world.
Although the drug has shown to be ineffective against COVID-19, the president still touts its successes, announcing recently that the Trump Administration would be sending 2 million doses to Brazil. Rather than researching other potential solutions with the current increased demand for a cure, the sensationalizing of a false cure has resulted in a lack of progress to save severe COVID-19 patients. The general public has thus been swarmed with the merits of hydroxychloroquine, distracting populations from developing real solutions with its high demand. Rather than researching newer drugs and vaccines, countries have now been focused on this false solution as a result of the praise that it’s received from the US president and the media.
Normally, researchers study hundreds of therapies and potential vaccines to develop a novel cure. But because of the media’s portrayal of false solutions, scientists have spent far more time and resources fact-checking the validity of these drugs. With a significant timeline to develop a typical vaccine, scientists are currently facing immense pressure to expedite their research to find a solution. Hastily starting trials and forgoing academic research can maximize the efficiency of the timeframe, but minimizes the probability that an effective vaccine will be created. A typical timeline would generate a vaccine by 2036, but governments are pushing for a cure by late 2021 to reopen their nations.
Without a vaccine, it will take significantly longer for nations to revitalize their economies. However, continually pushing with false solutions merely serves to distract researchers from progress to test their viability. The crucial race to find a cure or vaccine eventually transforms into a game to satisfy investors and shareholders in light of falsified solutions.
A Brief History of Vaccine Development
Treatments for various diseases and ailments have been around as long as civilized man. Most of these cures did nothing to help the illness; however, humans have always tried to cure disease with various remedies. Before the 1800s, folk medicine that utilized herbs and vegetables as well as prayer to supernatural forces were believed to cure anything from a cold to infection. Throughout history, religion and prayer has always found a way into medicine. Many of the remedies formulated throughout history have been based on religion and superstition.
However, as time passed, medical knowledge expanded as scientists and doctors studied the human body and theorized on how it worked and how its ailments could be cured. The first group to find cures and treatments within the United States was the apothecaries, the first being established in 1823 in New Orleans. This apothecary was also run by the first licensed pharmacist in the United States, where people would come to get anything from pain killers to remedies for insomnia. Antibiotics were not administered until 1942, with penicillin being used to cure septicemia, and insulin was not created for those with diabetes until 1922. As technology developed in leaps and bounds, more and more medicines were developed for bacterial infections and genetic disorders. By the 2000s, medicine had advanced to the point where cells could be cloned and most organs could be transplanted. Even so, many of the diseases that threatened people in America during the 1800s and earlier could only be stopped by preventative measures; vaccines.
The earliest form of inoculation, where a live disease would be exposed to cuts created on the body, can be traced as far back as 1000 A.D. (C.E.) in China. A vaccine is a much more advanced and sterile form of inoculation, where small parts of a live virus, not enough to infect an individual, are injected into someone, allowing their immune system to build up immunity and be able to fight the virus if that person is to come in contact with it again. Inoculation had a similar sentiment as vaccination does today, but often led to infection or the disease manifesting itself due to the lack of advancement in medical understanding.
The first vaccine was developed in 1796 by British scientist Edward Jenner. He was able to use the mild and rare cowpox infection in order to develop a vaccine for the incredibly widespread and dangerous smallpox infection. Almost immediately afterwards, Louis Pasteur, a French scientist, developed theories on bacteria and also developed the cholera, anthrax, and rabies vaccines in a laboratory, which was unprecedented. The fastest vaccine to ever be discovered, developed, and then approved for widespread use, was the mumps vaccine, which took four years. Vaccines have been shown to be the most successful tool for eradication of a disease, but they often take a decade or longer to be approved. After being approved, and within two years of usage, measles was 90% eradicated around the world due to the vaccine.
Currently, with a widespread pandemic, and hundreds of researchers pushing to find a vaccine for COVID-19, it has been predicted that a vaccine could be ready and approved within a year. This hope is very questionable, even with the current will power for a vaccine. In the case of cures, these medicines are extremely useful, but also very difficult to develop and they take a lot of trial and error in order to be formulated. Only time will tell if COVID-19 can be cured or vaccinated against in the near future.
However, as time passed, medical knowledge expanded as scientists and doctors studied the human body and theorized on how it worked and how its ailments could be cured. The first group to find cures and treatments within the United States was the apothecaries, the first being established in 1823 in New Orleans. This apothecary was also run by the first licensed pharmacist in the United States, where people would come to get anything from pain killers to remedies for insomnia. Antibiotics were not administered until 1942, with penicillin being used to cure septicemia, and insulin was not created for those with diabetes until 1922. As technology developed in leaps and bounds, more and more medicines were developed for bacterial infections and genetic disorders. By the 2000s, medicine had advanced to the point where cells could be cloned and most organs could be transplanted. Even so, many of the diseases that threatened people in America during the 1800s and earlier could only be stopped by preventative measures; vaccines.
The earliest form of inoculation, where a live disease would be exposed to cuts created on the body, can be traced as far back as 1000 A.D. (C.E.) in China. A vaccine is a much more advanced and sterile form of inoculation, where small parts of a live virus, not enough to infect an individual, are injected into someone, allowing their immune system to build up immunity and be able to fight the virus if that person is to come in contact with it again. Inoculation had a similar sentiment as vaccination does today, but often led to infection or the disease manifesting itself due to the lack of advancement in medical understanding.
The first vaccine was developed in 1796 by British scientist Edward Jenner. He was able to use the mild and rare cowpox infection in order to develop a vaccine for the incredibly widespread and dangerous smallpox infection. Almost immediately afterwards, Louis Pasteur, a French scientist, developed theories on bacteria and also developed the cholera, anthrax, and rabies vaccines in a laboratory, which was unprecedented. The fastest vaccine to ever be discovered, developed, and then approved for widespread use, was the mumps vaccine, which took four years. Vaccines have been shown to be the most successful tool for eradication of a disease, but they often take a decade or longer to be approved. After being approved, and within two years of usage, measles was 90% eradicated around the world due to the vaccine.
Currently, with a widespread pandemic, and hundreds of researchers pushing to find a vaccine for COVID-19, it has been predicted that a vaccine could be ready and approved within a year. This hope is very questionable, even with the current will power for a vaccine. In the case of cures, these medicines are extremely useful, but also very difficult to develop and they take a lot of trial and error in order to be formulated. Only time will tell if COVID-19 can be cured or vaccinated against in the near future.
