Our vaccine specialist, and WHO ambassador, Klaus Hermansen explains the current global situation of COVID-19 lockdowns, the transitions to opening back up, and the vital part that new technology plays in the process.
Status and figures
According to worldometer.info, we are close to 300.000 deaths caused by COVID-19 and there has been more than 4.000.000 registered cases. Have we seen the peak yet? My assessment is that we have not peaked yet, we still see major problems with the pandemic in Brazil, Russia, and USA, and we do not have a clear picture of the status in Africa which is greatly concerning. On a positive note, we also see that more than 1.500.000 people have recovered from the disease.
Lockdown to stabilize the infection rate
Most countries have been under lockdown for several weeks now - for all, or many activities, that could drive the risk of the COVID-19 transmission to increase in their society. Restaurants has been/are closed, most schools are closed, people are being asked to stay indoors and avoid physical contact by keeping a minimum of 1 meter distance to each other, as well as encouraged to disinfect hands on regular basis etc. All in all, huge restrictions that has big social and financial impact on all of us. The reason why these extreme precautions has been taken is to avoid an increase in the infection rate (RO). (A RO below 1 means that the disease will ‘slow down’ and disappear after some time, while a RO of more than 1 means that the disease will continue to spread).
Relief of restrictions – and aids available to ease the transition
While the global pharma and biotech businesses are working around the clock to develop a vaccine against COVID-19, or to get anti-viral products developed, we now start to see more and more countries initiating a controlled relief of many of above restrictions - while hoping that the RO figure will still remain below 1.
The relief of restrictions are often combined with a strong focus on testing potential infected people to minimize the spread of the disease.
Unfortunately, we have seen that the infection rate can rapidly increase again if people do not follow the recommendations from WHO and local authorities.
However, one example that has managed a positive transition from lockdown to opening the society, is South Korea. South Korea has been very successful in the fight against the disease by testing for COVID-19, and by tracing and monitoring potential infected people by using high-level technology such as app’s on mobile phones.
Can we use similar modern technology in Europe to trace and monitor COVID-19 infected people? – Not everyone would like it, for sure!
The lockdowns affect companies, just as much as us individuals, and the pressure of opening production and trade is extremely big.
Fact is that we will have to live with COVID-19 for quite some time, and we will have to follow recommended guidelines - but we can potentially open up for most regular activities, if we test, monitor and trace the disease by using the right technology. It will still take long time before we have an efficient vaccine ready and the therapeutic treatment is still very limited and expensive.
We do have to open up our society if we like to be able to live a ‘normal’ life again, so why not use the most efficient technology available to trace the disease and minimize the time and cost for getting back to normal?
Technology’s part of the solution
The industry are using the latest technology in the development of new vaccines against COVID-19, one example of that is the mRNA technology use by companies like Moderna that has a vaccine candidate mRNA-1273 encoding for a prefusion stabilized form of the Spike (S) protein. This work is done in co-operation with investigators at the NIAID Vaccine Research Center (VRC). And partly funded by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI). (source: www.drugs.com/clinical_trials)
If we look in general at the pharma and biotech business, we normally see that this segment is aiming for high-performance while ensuring compliance to all of the strict demands associated with pharma production which drives the need for innovation and high quality products to be used in the production processes.
To sum it up, innovative technology will play a vital role in the transition from lockdown back to ‘normal life’, as well as in the finding and manufacturing of a vaccine.