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Review
. 2021 Aug:71:111-116.
doi: 10.1016/j.coi.2021.07.003. Epub 2021 Jul 12.

COVID-19 vaccines

Duduzile Ndwandwe  1 , Charles S Wiysonge  2
Affiliations
Review

COVID-19 vaccines

Duduzile Ndwandwe et al. Curr Opin Immunol. 2021 Aug.

Abstract

COVID-19 is a pandemic of unprecedented proportions in recent human history. Less than 18 months since the onset of the pandemic, there are close to two hundred million confirmed cases and four million deaths worldwide. There have also been massive efforts geared towards finding safe and effective vaccines. By July 2021 there were 184 COVID-19 vaccine candidates in pre-clinical development, 105 in clinical development, and 18 vaccines approved for emergency use by at least one regulatory authority. These vaccines include whole virus live attenuated or inactivated, protein-based, viral vector, and nucleic acid vaccines. By mid-2021 three billion doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered around the world, mostly in high-income countries. COVID-19 vaccination provides hope for an end to the pandemic, if and only if there would be equal access and optimal uptake in all countries around the world.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
COVID-19 vaccine development compared to conventional vaccine development.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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    2. The study highlights the fundamentals of how vaccines work at a molecular level.

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    2. This paper reports on the first person to be vaccinated against any disease; and in this case it was smallpox. It is relevant to this day to understand the history of vaccines in order to appreciate the recent vaccine development advances.

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    2. The COVID-19 vaccine tracker and landscape compiles detailed information of each COVID-19 vaccine candidate in development by closely monitoring their progress through the pipeline.

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