COVID-19 Vaccination Efficacy and Safety Literature Review

Abstract

Since the emergency of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) that is caused by SARS-Cov-2 in 2019, researchers have been on the move to find solutions to mitigate the spread of the virus. Various control measures have been put in place by governments under guidelines and recommendations of key global agencies with the world health organization (WHO) leading in providing information to help fight the pandemic. Multi-agency research efforts have been geared towards developing vaccines for active immunization to prevent COVID-19 infection. This paper is geared towards providing a detailed review and analysis of developments of the current vaccines in terms of safety and efficacy. Approaches that have been taken by different researchers and their findings are the subject of this work. Based on the mechanism by which a vaccine protects an individual against COVID-19 infection, it has been found that the already rolled out vaccines are mRNA (Pfizer and Moderna) and vector (Astrazeneca) vaccine structured. There is also China's Sinovac vaccine which has been in place for the past few years. The four vaccines reviewed here are administered in two doses some days apart. Currently, no vaccine has a safety threat and the efficacies are 95% for COVID-19 mRNA vaccine BNT162b2 (Pfizer), 94.1% for mRNA-1273 vaccine (Moderna), 70.4%forChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine / AZD1222 (AstraZeneca) vaccine and 78% for sinovac respectively. Findings of this paper show that other vaccines are awaiting clinical roll out for trials. Even though these efficacies imply that the vaccines offer significant protection against the infection, further research and evaluation should go on to achieve higher efficacies while addressing any safety concerns that may go beyond local and systemic reactions that occur on patients after vaccination. This study concludes that even with the protection of the present vaccines, individuals must continue wearing personal protective equipment (PPEs) such as masks.