Amid politics and activism, the pandemic has resurged in America after states reopened in early June. With the general population struggling to keep their patience, health officials around the world are working feverously to test vaccines and drugs. Recently, a Maryland-based vaccine maker, Novavax, received $1.6 billion from “Operation Warp Speed” - a federal government-run COVID-19 vaccine program. This deal was made between the Trump Administration and Novavax which would ensure that Novavax would create 100 million doses of vaccine by the beginning of next year. The only risk in this deal is that Novavax has never put a product out in public before. In hopes of building another relationship with a drug company, the federal government invested their money in Novavax, for they have the same technology to make flu vaccines as other drug manufacturing companies.
Moreover, some health experts and scientists are coping with the myriad of medical research and papers regarding COVID-19. With over 6,000 printed research online and in a paper form, most of the research is put out without any peer review. Some are of poor quality. Some are not sourced properly. Yet, a few contain vital information. Students have to research in school to find credible, ethical, and accurate sources for their papers, while scientists have to do the same thing to make sure the correct information is shared with the general public.
For example, when the hydroxychloroquine - malaria drug - reaped benefits of a possible treatment for COVID-19, Jonathan Kimmelman, a professor of biomedical ethics at McGill University, focused on the method of how the experimental trial worked. He found out that the results of the experimenting derived greatly from their original plan. Therefore, he deemed the research ineffective and unethical. Luckily, hydroxychloroquine is not approved as a drug to treat COVID-19 patients.
Some respected institutions and names have put out misinformation, false claims, and unethical practices - putting humans at risk, and making trusted health officials/ scientists work harder to read and dissect papers.
Check the source - Check if multiple scientists looked over the paper. Rigorous medical journals like TheJournal of the American Medical Association, The Lancet, the New England Journal of Medicine have approved and trusted sources. Due to the pandemic, many medical journals are going through without peer review called preprints. It goes through a server that quickly scans the papers for plagiarism, overgeneralized work, and offensive content before publishing. This is where researchers and health officials now go to regarding COVID-19.
Beware of bold claims - As a general rule of thumb of life, it is important to understand that majority of things in life are never a "never" and "always" claim. Therefore, when there are claims in the papers that say "pickle juice is always the cure to leg bruises" (it is not), then that is a red flag. Almost nothing is science is definitive because of new research findings. It will take many more months for scientists to see significant research and change.
How Does Herd Immunity Work?
Once the majority of the population becomes immune / exposed to the coronavirus, the spread of the virus slows down. With vaccinations, herd immunity becomes easier to battle. Measles, polio, and the chickenpox have been essentially "cured" by both herd immunity and vaccinations. Eventually, health officials would like to take that route with COVID-19. The virus is deadly and risky at the moment to test for herd immunity. Doctors and scientists are not sure if those that recover from COVID-19 have immunity against it, or if they do, how long. To achieve herd immunity in the future, scientists have to figure out the "R-nought" - basic reproduction rate of the virus. For COVID-19, 1 person with the virus can infect up to 2 to 3 people. If 50%-67% (150 million - 216 million) of the population is immune to the virus, then that will essentially stop the virus from spreading around the country. With a vaccine, it will be much easier to follow through with herd immunity. Until then, herd immunity is not in near until more research is done and a vaccine is made.
FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION AND HOW THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE ANIMAL KINGDOM AND HUMANS WORK, WATCH THIS VIDEO MADE BY VOX:
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