COVID-19 pandemic: lessons learned from more than a century of pandemics and current vaccine development for pandemic control

Abstract

Pandemic dynamics and health care responses are markedly different during the COVID-19 pandemic than in earlier outbreaks. Compared with established infectious disease such as influenza, we currently know relatively little about the origin, reservoir, cross-species transmission and evolution of SARS-CoV-2. Health care services, drug availability, laboratory testing, research capacity and global governance are more advanced than during 20th century pandemics, although COVID-19 has highlighted significant gaps. The risk of zoonotic transmission and an associated new pandemic is rising substantially. COVID-19 vaccine development has been done at unprecedented speed, with the usual sequential steps done in parallel. The pandemic has illustrated the feasibility of this approach and the benefits of a globally coordinated response and infrastructure. Some of the COVID-19 vaccines recently developed or currently in development might offer flexibility or sufficiently broad protection to swiftly respond to antigenic drift or emergence of new coronaviruses. Yet many challenges remain, including the large-scale production of sufficient quantity of vaccines, delivery of vaccines to all countries and ensuring vaccination of relevant age groups. This wide vaccine technology approach will be best employed in tandem with active surveillance for emerging variants or new pathogens using antigen mapping, metagenomics and next generation sequencing.

Humoral Immunogenicity to SARS-CoV-2 Vaccination in Liver Transplant Recipients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID- 19), which is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has led to more than 6 million deaths, dramatically increasing the burden on healthcare systems worldwide [1][2][3][4][5]. Since vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 is the most appropriate way to achieve herd immunity, more than 5 billion people globally have received at least one dose as of April 2022.…”

Evidence and rationale for vaccinating children and adolescents against SARS-CoV-2: a comprehensive narrative review

“…The accelerated speed of COVID-19 vaccines development is attributed to the unparalleled global coalition of academia, pharmaceutical companies and governments, which has mobilized abundant human and economic resources, and facilitatedto an unprecedented extent-the seamless exchange of medical data, scientific knowledge and biotechnology experience [145]. The legacy of the previous coronavirus epidemics (SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV), along with the evidence-based potential of novel vaccine platforms, reinforced and accelerated the development of vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 [154,155]. Simultaneously, the government-endorsed front-load funding enabled the mass production of the vaccine candidates before their final approval, shifting the risk in terms of costs and failure from industry to governments [156].…”

Designing an optimization model for the vaccine supply chain during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Over the last four decades, at least 30 new infectious diseases have emerged ( Mukherjee, 2017 ). Researchers and medical professionals believe this trend could increase due to increasing human-animal contact, climate change, land change, global population growth, and global cohesion ( Buchy et al, 2021 ). The latest global health crisis is the COVID-19 pandemic since late 2019, which has caused a significant impact worldwide and become one of the critical public health concerns in the 21st century due to its severity of prevalence and mortality rate ( Govindan et al, 2020 , Melo et al, 2021 ).…”