1. INTRODUCTION
According to the World Health Organization, there are currently in development more than 200 vaccines against COVID-19 (december 2020).
Out of these +200, there are +10 in phase 3 (they are being tested in thousands of people) and out of these most developed ones, there are three that are on the fronline for mass-vaccination this year 2021.
2. MAIN VACCINES AGAINST COVID (december 2020)
- Oxford-AstraZeneca: US-made COVID-19 vaccine that uses a non-replicative viral vector to trigger the immune response (a virus that is genetically modified to prime the immune system against COVID but has been deactivated so that it cannot replicate).
- Moderna: US-made COVID-19 vaccine that uses messenger RNA as an immune trigger (mRNA gives direct instructions to our cells, in this case, to create defenses specifically against COVID).
- Pfizer-BioNTech: German-american COVID-19 vaccine that uses messenger RNA as an immune stimulator (it works the same way than Moderna’s).
3. NOTES
- Not all vaccines are using the same techniques. More than 10 different types of vaccines are being tested: with protein subunits, DNA, inactivated viruses … some even with oral and nasal application (not just injected).
- I will update the information with new studies / news / advances.
4. MORE INFORMATION AND REFERENCES
- Who.int – World Health Organization Official Website (2020). Draft landscape of COVID-19 candidate vaccines. Avaliable [HERE].