- [Mitchell] As Covid-19 spreads
from the coronavirus pandemic,
many are doing their part by social distancing
and self-isolating.
But as the virus and disease progress,
one big question on many people's minds is,
what can we expect with regards to a vaccine?
- So, there are a ton of fascinating things
happening right now and tireless research
looking into a vaccine.
But in order to understand it,
we must first talk about how vaccines work.
It was in the year 1796
that the first official vaccine was created
by Edward Jenner.
He took a bit of the cowpox virus
and injected it into a small boy.
He later was able to confirm
that that boy did not develop smallpox,
which was a related virus.
So, how exactly did this work?
Typically, when you get infected with a virus,
it begins taking over your cell's machinery
in order to make copies of itself.
But these actions eventually trigger an immune response.
Your body begins creating special cells
like macrophage, B cells and T cells,
that not only try and destroy the pathogen
but also store information about it.
What it looks like, the best way to defeat it, and more.
This part is specially important
because if the virus ever comes back again,
your body can be immediately prepared to attack it.
But the body takes time to do all of this,
and so, if a virus gets enough of a head start
or attacks somebody with a compromised immune system,
it can gain the upper hand,
leading to illness or death.
- This is where vaccines come in.
There are many different types,
but the goal of them all is
to prep and train your immune system
before you get an infection.
It's like a practice run.
That way, when your body is invaded by the real virus,
it has an advantage because it already knows
how to take down the invaders.
Most vaccines work by injecting some aspect of a virus
or bacteria into your bloodstream,
depending on what strain you're trying to protect against.
We're gonna focus on viruses today.
Once administered into the bloodstream,
even though it's not the real virus,
the body reacts as thought it's a real threat.
macrophages engulf the pieces,
allowing T cells to recognize and bind the foreign antigen,
causing them to replicate into all different kinds
of immune cells
and trigger something called memory cells.
These stick around even after the body is done fighting,
and it's these memory cells that allow for a quick response
if and when the real virus shows up.
- The effectiveness of vaccines have allowed us
to nearly eradicate diseases like measles,
until, of course, the recent vaccine hesitant movement
in which kind of came back.
Regardless, they are extremely powerful tools
to provide immunity to the individual
and to protect larger communities,
and, in our ever-connected world, all of humanity.
Now there is more than one type of vaccine.
Live attenuated vaccines like measles, mumps, and rubeola
introduce weaker or asymptomatic forms of the virus
into your body,
which are very effective but can't be given to people
with compromised immune systems.
Inactive vaccines like polio or hepatitis A
use dead pathogens that have been killed
by heat or chemicals.
These can be used on people
with already weakened immune systems.
However, they aren't great for long-lasting immunity
because they don't stimulate the real thing
quite as well as live attenuated vaccines
and often require several doses.
Subunit vaccines like hepatitis B or influenza
use a specific protein or carbohydrate from the pathogen
that will still trigger an immune response.
There are some other experimental DNA vaccines,
but perhaps the most relevant
is a promising new technique of vaccines
called mRNA vaccines,
which you may have heard about recently.
That's because they are currently in development
and have begun testing on humans
to potentially fight the spread of Covid-19.
- The private company Moderna has created a vaccine
called mRNA-1273
and has enlisted 45 healthy adults
to start receiving the vaccine.
This is unprecedented because they've skipped
the typical years of animal testing
and instead are doing it at the same time
as their human trials.
But experts believe they received permission
because they're not actually inserting
a modified virus into individuals,
but rather a sequence that codes
for the tiny protein spikes that are on the virus
that connect with human cells.
The hope is that this mRNA will get processed in your cells
and have them making the spike-like protein
that will be on the virus,
which would then trigger your immune system
to kick into action and ultimately have your body prepared
for when the real thing happens.
They were able to get ahead on building this thing
because of Chinese scientists
who sequenced the genetic material
of SARS-CoV-2,
the virus that causes Covid-19.
This information was publicly released in January
which has helped labs around the world
start to test and build out vaccines.
SARS-CoV-2 shares between 80 to 90%
of its genetic material with SARS,
the virus we know about from 2003.
Both consistent of a strip of ribonucleic acid
inside a spherical protein capsule
that is covered in spikes.
- This means that some of the vaccine information
is able to take up where the SARS vaccine left off,
and I know we have said
that they have already started to give this to humans
but this is only to test safety,
to make sure there's no negative effects,
and to see if it actually creates the antibodies.
Clinical trials usually take place in three phases,
and the first phase is to test for safety
and make sure there's no negative adverse effects.
The second phase is to test for efficacy,
and usually you give it to a larger amount of people
in a place where the disease has taken hold.
For example, they're doing it right now in Seattle.
The third phase is to continue this testing
in a larger expansion,
now looking at thousands of people.
If the vaccine does appear to be safe,
Moderna is gonna ask the FDA
to move on to the second phase
before the first phase has technically even finished.
You can start to imagine how long this is going to take.
As you give people these experimental vaccines,
you can't just then give them the virus and the disease.
You have to let them go out and live their lives
and see what happens when they may be contracted,
when they maybe don't.
You have to look at tested individuals
next to control groups, people who didn't get the vaccine,
and start to see what happens.
Does it even work, does it make people unhealthy,
does it do nothing?
For example, in 2004, when a SARS vaccine was being tested,
vaccinated ferrets developed
damaging inflammation in their lungs
after being infected with the virus.
Approval can be accelerated
if regulators have approved similar products before,
which is how the flu vaccine is so well designed
and modulated to be updated yearly.
- But the SARS-CoV-2 virus
is a novel pathogen in humans,
which means many of the technologies
that are being used to develop the vaccine
are relatively untested.
There are hundreds of labs all around the world
making amazing headway when it comes
to treatment and vaccines,
some even repurposing SARS vaccine research
and hoping to start clinical trials in the spring.
Shout out to the Canadian scientists
who isolated the SARS-CoV-2 virus
which will inevitably help
in terms of finding treatments and vaccines
going into the future.
- Truthfully, it usually takes decades to make a vaccine.
Every stage takes time, from sequencing the genome,
to isolating the virus, to testing in vitro,
to then testing in animals,
going from mice to non-human primates,
to starting those phases we talked about earlier.
Phase one for safety, phase two for efficacy,
phase three for expanding it out,
before even asking for a license,
and then thinking about how to make enough of the vaccine
for an entire population.
All of this to say that experts believe
that with record-breaking time
we can get a coronavirus vaccine within one to two years.
Some hopeful people who think on the bright side of life
and are actually thinking about
some of these more experimental ways of making vaccines
think we can get one as early as eight months,
and some more conservative estimates
have it at longer than two years.
Even the vaccine that's already gone into human trials,
the one we talked about from Seattle,
the company Moderna,
that is likely still going to take a year.
And it's also important to remember
that it's a private company
and therefore they have private interests,
so these really exciting headlines
do in fact help their stock.
Either way, these short timelines come with risk,
not to mention that many countries around the world
are trying to develop their own versions of these vaccines
and if they get somewhere
they're going to inoculate their own populations first.
It will be a long time before we have a vaccine
that is able to be used on the world's population.
- We say all this not to discourage people
but to help understand realistic timelines.
We even have some friends that have said things like,
"Oh, we'll be out of this once they get a vaccine
"in a couple weeks."
And it's like, it doesn't work like that.
Might we create therapeutics and relief
for those who are infected?
Yes.
And might we see a record-time vaccine that comes out?
That's totally a possibility as well.
But we can't count on it to solve our immediate issues.
And is it possible that we may never see
a Covid-19 vaccine?
That is a possibility as well.
- It all really emphasizes the constant need for research
and funding of the sciences.
After the SARS epidemic of 2003 sort of died down,
a lot of that research and funding money
was taken out of that vaccine,
which is disappointing because
all of that research and money
if we had continued to fund it
would have been extremely helpful right now.
There is now SARS vaccine because once it died down
that research and funding was cut.
When this pandemic eventually dies down,
we need to remember our lessons of the past,
which is that we need to continue
to fund science and research
and make sure that when these things happen again
we are more prepared.
We'll say it now and we'll say it again,
and that is that you need to vote for science.
You need to elect politicians who believe in science
and who listen to scientists when it comes to policy.
- In the meantime, this is why it's so important
that we physically distance and self-isolate
in order to flatten the curve,
wash your hands regularly and thoroughly,
and keep looking to legitimate sources
to keep updated on news and information as well as advice.
- This is an unprecedented time
and it is such an important moment in history
for science communication.
We really think it's amazing
how many people have made videos out there,
how everyone has sort of taken to Twitter and Instagram
to try and disseminate proper scientific information,
and for that reason we are thankful.
- I think we should also send a huge thank you
to everyone on the front lines of this,
whether it's healthcare workers.
Greg's sister is literally
a respiratory therapist. - Yeah, she runs ventilators.
Truly one of the most important people
in the world right now.
- And we really wanna see that there's
grocery store workers and clerks,
there's scientists and researchers,
there's everyone working at hospitals,
and so many more that have such important roles,
and we appreciate you so much.
- If you have any questions, let us know.
This is what we are gonna be working on right now.
- We are here.
- We are here. - For the foreseeable future.
- I mean, science communication is something we love,
we've been doing it for eight years,
but right now we're like, okay, we need to make sure
that people are getting the right information
and we have the ability to do that.
Was that enough of those?
- And the time, because we're literally self-isolating.
We also just put a podcast out about self-isolation
and research surrounding that,
so we'll leave a link.
- Make sure you're subscribed.
There's our mailing list below.
We'll see you soon for a new video.
- See you guys. - Peace.