Hi Ranty Nation! Ranty McRantyson har agin!

Wit all the talkin goin on bout Pres Trump bein sick wit the COVID-19, ah thunk ah’d talk abit bout how a COVID-19 vaccine might play out over the next few months… or even year! Ah thunk it’d be a gud thang to talk bout after watchin this YouTube video:

Even IF we were to have a vaccine TODAY (Oct 9, 2020), it would take AT LEAST 6 months (probably 12-18+ months) to get a significant number (enough to make a difference) of vaccines out to the Merican people.

Why don’t we’all take a look at the numbers, effectiveness, an methods of vaccine makins. Ah’ll take em in order:

The Numbers

Every year we dun vaccinate bout 50% of the US population aginst the seasonal flu. That wurks out to bout 150-165 MILLION doses (shots) per year. It’d be reasonable to xpect that the US would need at least that many COVID-19 vaccine shots an, ah’m not jokin, BILLIONS of shots world-wide to “stop” COVID-19 (bring it under “control”). An that number could be two or three times higher if’n the vaccine required multiple, staged shots (maybe a month apart) to wurk gud.

— https://www.cdc.gov/flu/fluvaxview/coverage-1819estimates.htm

How Well Might a COVID-19 Vaccine Wurk?

Previous SARS (i.e. Coronavirus) vaccines ain’t wurked so well an has only been gud enuf to improve recovery, not stop infections. Har’s a listin of the challenges facin vaccine developers, accordin the Mayo Clinic: (This is quoted directly from their web site.)

– Ensuring vaccine safety. Several vaccines for SARS have been tested in animals. Most of the vaccines improved the animals’ survival but didn’t prevent infection. Some vaccines also caused complications, such as lung damage. A COVID-19 vaccine will need to be thoroughly tested to make sure it’s safe for humans. [In other words, to make sure that the cure isn’t worse than the disease. — GFBJJ]

– Providing long-term protection. After infection with coronaviruses, re-infection with the same virus — though usually mild an only happening in a fraction of people — is possible after a period of months or years. An effective COVID-19 vaccine will need to provide people with long-term infection protection.

– Protecting older people. People older than age 50 are at higher risk of severe COVID-19. But older people usually don’t respond to vaccines as well as younger people. An ideal COVID-19 vaccine would work well for this age group. [It must be effective at provoking a strong immune response in this (immune weakened) vulnerable age group to be considered effective. -GFBJJ]

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/coronavirus/in-depth/coronavirus-vaccine/art-20484859

How do them Scientists an Companies Actually Make a Vaccine?

A listin of a number of ways a vaccine dun might be made’re outlined from Wikipedia below:

“Production

Vaccine production has several stages. First, the antigen itself is generated. Viruses are grown either on primary cells such as chicken eggs (e.g., for influenza) or on continuous cell lines such as cultured human cells (e.g., for hepatitis A).[88] Bacteria are grown in bioreactors (e.g., Haemophilus influenzae type b). Likewise, a recombinant protein derived from the viruses or bacteria can be generated in yeast, bacteria, or cell cultures. After the antigen is generated, it is isolated from the cells used to generate it. A virus may need to be inactivated, possibly with no further purification required. Recombinant proteins need many operations involving ultrafiltration and column chromatography. Finally, the vaccine is formulated by adding adjuvant, stabilizers, and preservatives as needed. The adjuvant enhances the immune response of the antigen, stabilizers increase the storage life, and preservatives allow the use of multidose vials.[89][90] Combination vaccines are harder to develop and produce, because of potential incompatibilities and interactions among the antigens and other ingredients involved.[91]

Vaccine production techniques are evolving. Cultured mammalian cells are expected to become increasingly important, compared to conventional options such as chicken eggs, due to greater productivity and low incidence of problems with contamination. Recombination technology that produces genetically detoxified vaccine is expected to grow in popularity for the production of bacterial vaccines that use toxoids. Combination vaccines are expected to reduce the quantities of antigens they contain, and thereby decrease undesirable interactions, by using pathogen-associated molecular patterns.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine

More info can be found har: (ah was directed to the link below by the followin CDC page. — https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd/vpd-vac-basics.html):

— https://www.historyofvaccines.org/content/how-vaccines-are-made

In other wurds, it’s not easy wurk!

As y’all can probly imagine, NONE OF THESE METHODS’LL BE DUN QUICK-LIKE, specially not in the needed 200++ million of doses har in the US, much less the BILLIONS that’re done needed world-wide.

So, how do the CDC recommend we’all protect ourselves until we’all have an EFFECTIVE an VAILABLE COVID-19 vaccine?

— https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/prevention.html

Y’all know, the usual stuff: Wear a (gud) mask, Wash yur hands, Watch yur distance, Wipe yur surfaces (wit disinfectunt, but DON’T INJECT IT!) an definutely stay away from others if they or y’all are sick, etc.

Hope this har article dun laid some edjumacation on y’all an y’all found it helpful!

Ranty McRantyson signin off!

PS. Har’s a link to a Mayo Clinic article regardin COVID-19 an masks (an whut dun makes a “gud” mask):

— https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/coronavirus/in-depth/coronavirus-mask/art-20485449