(1)A year after the first news of the novel coronavirus, the nations of the Americas are asking themselves if widespread vaccination will be the only way out of the pandemic (worldwide disease). They do this in the middle of a new wave of infections that have demonstrated the vulnerability of their backup plans, particularly in Latin America. The vaccine seems now to be the only reasonable bet for governments that have not managed to place extreme restrictions on the movements of their citizens, particularly in economies with high levels of informal (or unofficial) employment. (2)Countries in Latin America that have announced the start of mass vaccination plans include, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Dominican Republic, Uruguay, and Venezuela. To the north, the United States and Canada both have their vaccination campaigns well underway. The U.S., having distributed over 39 doses for every 100 inhabitants, has the highest level of vaccination in North America. Chile, having distributed over 47 doses per 100 people, has the highest level of vaccination in South America and overall throughout the region. Dominant vaccines in the region Dominant vaccines in the region (3)he Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, which requires two doses and has proven 95% effective in clinical trials (“effective” refers to the vaccine’s ability to prevent serious illness), is currently the most widely used throughout the Americas. Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, the U.S. and Mexico are already using the shot, and Columbia plans to begin large-scale use by the end of February. In Argentina, plans are underway to begin use of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which requires two doses and has proven 70% effective at preventing any level of infection. This is in addition to the Russian vaccine, Sputnik V, which is being used currently. AstraZeneca, of English origin, has not yet received approval in the United States. The Moderna vaccine has been approved and is being widely used and distributed throughout the U.S. and Canada, but has been left out of most vaccine packages purchased in Latin America, which could be attributed to its high cost per unit. Only has confirmed a significant purchase of 10 million doses from Moderna. In addition, the Colombian Government went ahead with the vaccine developed by Johnson & Johnson, whose trial results in the large countries of Latin America have demonstrated an efficacy or effectiveness of around 66%. (4)Although AstraZeneca and Pfizer are the two most used vaccines throughout the Americas, some Latin American countries have also made purchases of vaccines of Chinese and Russian origin. Chile has acquired as many as 60 million doses of Coronavac, developed by the Chinese laboratory Sinovac. The efficacy or effectiveness of this vaccine is registered as 50.3%, although studies carried out in Brazil initially placed it at higher levels. Brazil has begun to immunize (to treat with a vaccine) their health personnel with it. Argentina chose the Russian Sputnik V from the beginning whose efficacy was recently shown to be over 90%, of which the country has already received more than 600,000 doses. Before the results were released publicly, Argentine President Alberto Fernández was one of the first people to receive the vaccine in his country, to try to eliminate the distrust of a sector of the population. In Mexico, around 24 million doses of this vaccine (Sputnik V) have been purchased, 200,000 of which are expected shortly. The Bolivian population is now also being treated with Sputnik V. following the arrival of 20,000 doses from Moscow. Follow up data reporting the percentage of the population that has already received the vaccine is not yet available. (5)The vaccines differ not only in their ability to reduce or prevent symptoms, they also differ in the way they work. The vaccines produced by Pfizer and Moderna send genetic instructions to cells to create a specific protein that fights the coronavirus. These vaccines must be kept extremely cold and require special freezers for storage. The vaccines produced by AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, and Gamaleya use a similar technique known as vector vaccines” to fight the coronavirus, but this technology allows the vaccines to be stored in a common refrigerator. China’s Sinovac is a vaccine that works by using harmless particles of Covid 19 itself, which, when injected, are expected to produce an immune reaction (like the one actually registered in the tests) in the body. These vaccines are all in some ways unique, but what is most important is the way in which they all resemble one another. So far, they have all demonstrated the ability to almost eliminate the probability of death from causes associated with COVID-19. In the clinical trials of AstraZeneca, Coronavac, Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, Pfizer, and Sputnik V registered to date, no person has died whose death could be directly related to the treatment. What are the two most used vaccines throughout the Americas?
Which vaccines send genetic instructions to cells to create a specific protein that fights the coronavirus?