The human population has a long history of battling emerging infectious diseases. Despite the advancement in technology at present times, there still is no tool to prevent the arising of disease outbreaks. While efforts to develop a vaccine for COVID-19 are in progress and the timeline being indefinite, the financial pressure to save the economy continues to build up. To mitigate the economic impact, lockdown is lifted on most countries and citizens are now out and about with the new normal.
Millions of vaccine doses are administered each year to prevent the spread of infectious diseases and through vaccine usage, numerous diseases have been eliminated. In the current condition of the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) outbreak, many are hoping that the large-scale production and distribution of the vaccine could be the most effective and long-lasting solution in controlling this pandemic.
Several variants of the SARS-CoV-2 have been observed in recent researches. Data regarding their characteristics became widely available, interlinking them with a higher rate of transmissibility and a higher rate of evading the host immune response. These attributes make these variants even more challenging to control. While most emerging mutations will not have a significant impact on the spread of the virus, the news of them appearing still invoked fear within the public.
COVID-19 vaccines are generally concurred to be the most effective in sustainably controlling the pandemic. It is after all proven that while countermeasures such as social distancing, universal face covering, and frequent handwashing are effective, it is not completely reliable and does not often work if disregarded. For that reason, the best way to avoid being infected by the virus is to be vaccinated.
