V Is For Vaccine

Lots of excitement has been predictably generated by preliminary claims about the efficacy of a vaccine for Sars-CoV-2, developed by the German biotech company BioNTech and the US drug company Pfizer. It seems to give about 90% protection with no notable side-effects (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/09/pfizer-biontech-vaccine-announcement-analysis). The development has, naturally, been welcomed by scientists and politicians, especially as the technique used is relatively new, focusing, as it does, on a section of messenger Ribonucleic acid (mRNA) the virus uses to invade host cells. There are some unanswered questions. How effective is the vaccine in older people? Old folk (like me) are a risk group, needing protection but, presumably, were not well-represented in the initial trials (this is not unusual, as they would be more at risk on developing a test infection). A potential limitation of the vaccine is that it needs storage temperatures that are much lower than those used traditionally. This might make it difficult to transport the medication to some remote locations. Most medics seem to agree that we are 'not out of the woods' yet and will need an array of vaccines to deal effectively with the pandemic. A 10% 'failure' of protection is still relatively high (10% of the human population is a big number). There are also other 'clouds on the horizon'. The discovery of a mutated version of the virus in farmed Danish mink that has passed to humans (scientists are requesting samples of this virus), may have repercussions for vaccine development. We might well need to develop new versions of the vaccine each year, in response to viral mutations (as we do for seasonal influenza). Who knows what other mutations of Sars-CoV-2 might occur in other animal groups closely associated with humans? Are we really sure that the farming of wild animals for exotic foods has ceased in China and other countries? I am also concerned about the growth of the 'antivaxx' movement, as it could lead to persistence of infections in populations (i.e. there would be no chance of 'herd immunity'). Having said all that, things are definitely looking brighter in the medium term.