Billions of dollars have been spent in combating the pandemic, with a large proportion of that money going to vaccine development. Other areas of research also received a huge boost during the pandemic – and the results could make a big difference to public health in the future.
Here are some of the big winners in the pandemic-inspired financing race.
MRNA vaccines – The incredible success of the Pfizer / BioNtech and Moderna vaccines set the stage for the development of other highly customizable vaccines in the future. The beauty of vaccines is that they are basically projects – they use a genetic code to instruct the body to build tiny molecular targets. The body’s immune system then goes to the city in target practice and builds immunity so that if a real threat – like the coronavirus – appears, it can respond quickly.
Researchers have been working on basic science around mRNA vaccines for years, but have not gotten a big chance so far. They were receiving funding, but remained in the shadow of the “biotechnological death valley” – the gap between research discovery and commercialization. Now that they have proven their worth in clinical trials and have been used to vaccinate millions of people – suddenly, they are ready for a massive explosion. As production increases, researchers see hope for diseases like HIV and sickle cell anemia.
Its success is a major victory for pharmaceutical companies (and the stock market), but also for researchers and smaller suppliers. The specialized biotechnology companies that produce the nanoparticles that contain the genetic material of the vaccines are growing, with some increasing their production by 50 times. Authorizations, great results from clinical trials and investments in this type of manufacturing may mean that we will see more mRNA vaccines in the future.
Rapid molecular testing – Before COVID-19, a handful of companies were working on diagnostic tests for flu, sexually transmitted diseases and a load of other diseases. These quick and easy tests can look for the genetic material of a virus in patient samples without the need for a slow trip to the laboratory.
When these companies began to see reports of this new virus, many of them changed their position. Your tests can detect viruses – why not train them to detect it is virus? Suddenly, they are no longer an academic exercise (also languishing in the valley of death) for investors who inject hundreds of millions of dollars into their technology. These rapid tests can facilitate the diagnosis of diseases in the future. To learn more about the rapid molecular testing boom, read this week’s excellent story from my colleague Nicole Wetsman.
COVID long – This is a little different from the others, but it is also a notable new area of research that emerged during the pandemic. A few weeks ago, the National Institutes of Health announced a new $ 1.15 billion pledge for “long COVID” research. Some people who are infected with the virus end up having symptoms that persist for months – and researchers still don’t know why.
The four-year initiative will help to conduct research on why this happens, who is affected and what are the lasting effects, among other issues. It is a big boost for people who suffer from prolonged COVID and other illnesses with prolonged recovery times – whether they are viral or not. These types of symptoms are often overlooked, but, as Julia Belluz points out in Vox, they are definitely not exclusive to COVID.
All of that money allowed scientists to begin to face a new emerging threat. The millions and, in some cases, billions of dollars have allowed new technologies to prove themselves. These are investments that have the potential to change the way we look at older diseases that have been with us for a long time, in addition to more recent emerging threats.
The question now is how to move this urgency and funding to medicine more broadly, after this particular pandemic has passed us by.
Here’s what else happened this week.
Search
Women report worse side effects after the COVID-19 vaccine
As with many other vaccines, women tend to respond differently to injections of COVID-19, often reporting worse side effects than men. (Melinda Wenner Moyer / The New York Times)
Unraveling the mysteries of long COVID
Take a look at some of the existing research on long COVID in this extensive The Atlantic. (Meghan O’Rourke / The Atlantic)
Development
Meet Dr. B, the startup that promises a better way to distribute leftover vaccines
Efforts to connect people to the vaccines left over in the United States have begun to gather around a startup called Dr. B. That’s how it works. (Russell Brandom / The Verge)
Oxford-AstraZeneca: EU says ‘no indication’ vaccine linked to clots
Several countries have suspended the use of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines for fear that they may be related to blood clots. But shortly thereafter, the EU regulator said there was no indication that the vaccines were related to clots. (BBC)
COVID-19 vaccines targeting multiple variants are under development in Moderna, Novavax
Companies are starting to work on vaccines that will target multiple variants of the coronavirus instead of a single variant. (Jared Hopkins / Wall Street Newspaper)
Perspectives:
On March 10, I took a selfie with a woman who had fallen asleep on top of me on my way home. I joked that “social distance in New York is great!” The next day, I showed up at the office and only a handful of my colleagues were in, but all snacks were gone. I had a few bags of chips stored on my table and I used the chopsticks to eat them because I was afraid to touch my mouth.
– Verge ScienceCory Zapatka himself remembers, a year ago, this week, when the pandemic was officially declared. He and another Border employees shared their memories of the beginning of the pandemic.
“They don’t say, ‘Yes, I ended up here because of the coronavirus … But what they talk about is a chaotic world, of’ Yes, I am not doing my activities anymore ‘,’ I ‘am not doing my music anymore, ” Going to school is difficult in the morning ‘,’ I’m having trouble waking up ‘,’ I’m sick of the mask. ‘”
– Dr. Richard Delorme tells the Associated Press about the children he treats in a pediatric hospital in France. There was an overall increase in mental health problems in children during this pandemic.
More than numbers
For the more than 118,910,684 people around the world who test positive, may their path to recovery be smooth.
The family and friends of the 2,641,844 people who died worldwide – 532,593 of them in the United States – their loved ones will not be forgotten.
Be safe, everyone.
Correction 03/13/2021 11:00: ONE the previous version of this article erroneously released the global death toll. More than 2,641,844 people died worldwide, not 118,910,684. We’re sorry for the error.