A recent press release discussed that a brief review of vaccine history shows that new vaccine development has a success rate of nearly 7%. There are more than 200 vaccines in or ready for clinical trials, while 14 vaccines are anticipated to be clinically successful. Presently, Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca, Novavax, Johnson & Johnson, GlaxoSmithKline, as well as CNBG in China have reported that 80-95% of individuals who have taken vaccines are protected against COVID-19.

It was reported that administering a vaccine to a post-COVID person would be no different from a person who has recovered then been re-exposed or re-infected. In both cases, the individual will mount a rapid immune response and either will be asymptomatic or develop mild, manageable symptoms. Re-exposure to the SARS-CoV-2 virus or receiving a vaccine might even boost the persons immunity to future COVID infections.

Meanwhile, clinical evidence from other viruses do not support the incidence of harmful side effects from vaccines in individuals who have recovered from the respective infection. Therefore, it has been suggested that all medically competent individuals should receive vaccination as soon as possible.

In non-pandemic times, every individual should have his or her autonomous right to choose which vaccine to receive and whether to be vaccinated or not, even if they have been exposed to a pathogen. In this pandemic, we must enable our healthcare providers curb the infections by inoculating as many medically competent people as possible. This will speed up the attainment of herd immunity.

Source: Dec 3. 2020. By Denise chow. Nbcnews.com