Which vaccine is the best?|By Sohail Khan

 Hello, friends.

When it comes to getting vaccinated against Covid,

you might be wondering one thing.

Which vaccine is the best?

If you get the option, should you choose Covaxin or Covishield?

Or should you wait for the Russian or the made-in-US Pfizer vaccine?

Which of these vaccines have minimum side effects?

I would like to address all your questions and doubts regarding the vaccines in this article.

Let's start with the question about the side effects.

Which type of side effects are commonly seen?

When we get any vaccine, the vaccinated area may pain a little or get swollen.

These are known as the local side effects.

And the other kind of side effects is the Systemic Side Effects.

These may include fever, headaches, many people feel fatigued.

These last for a couple of days and then they're fine.

In Pfizer and Moderna's mRNA vaccines these side effects are fewer after the first dose.

But are more common after the second dose.

In the AstraZeneca vaccine, the side effects are more after the first dose.

And few after the second dose.

These are the common side effects but there are some rare side effects of the vaccines as well.

Friends, all the vaccines can be divided into 3 categories based on how they work.

In the first category are the inactivated vaccines.

Like our Covaxin.

Which vaccine is the best?|By Sohail Khan 

A virus is produced in a lab and treated with chemicals to inactivate it.

It means that it isn't harmful to you.

And then this virus is used as an inactivated vaccine.

This is how Covaxin works.

The second category is the Viral Vector Vaccine.

Our Covishield and Russia's Sputnik V both belong to this category.

Which vaccine is the best?|By Sohail Khan 

Let's take Covishield as an example to see what is in it.

In Covishield a Chimpanzee Adenovirus is taken.

Adenovirus is the name of a family of viruses.

The genetic code in the chimpanzee virus is replaced

with the genetic code of the SARS-COV2 virus.

SARS-COV2 is the virus that causes Covid-19.

So a chimpanzee virus that has the genetic code of SARS-COV2 works like a vaccine in your body.

This is known as Viral Vector Vaccine.

Why?

Do you remember the word 'vector', friends?

Mosquitoes are often called vectors of dengue and malaria

because these mosquitoes carry these diseases and infect us.

Similarly, this chimpanzee virus works as a vector.

It is getting into our bodies and infecting us with the SARS-COV2 genetic code.

So that our body can build up immunity against it.

Russia's Sputnik V vaccine is also a viral vector vaccine.

But instead of Chimpanzee Adenovirus, it uses Human Adenovirus.

Lastly comes the third category of vaccines the mRNA vaccines.

Like the Pfizer vaccine and Moderna vaccine.

This photo is of the SARS-COV2 virus that causes Covid-19.

Which vaccine is the best?|By Sohail Khan 

The red things coming out of the ball-shaped thing are called Spike Proteins.

mRNA is taken from these Spiked Proteins and used to create the vaccines.

All of you know that the human body has DNA.

Similarly, viruses have RNA.

And if you've studied biology in 11th and 12th, you'd know that DNA is double-stranded

and RNA is a single strand.

mRNA means Messenger RNA.

mRNA is extracted from the Spike Protein and it acts as a vaccine in your body.

If we think about the relative advantages and disadvantages

You will have to take 2 doses of Covaxin 4 weeks apart.

The vaccine's effect will be after 6 weeks.

The entire immunization will be complete and protection will start.

And the interim data that we've seen till now

indicated that there will be 81% protection.

After taking only 1 dose of Covishield the protection is around 70%.

For taking the second dose, it is better to delay it as it has better efficacy.

We know this because there have been several immunogenicity studies in the UK.

In which the immune response has been observed in detail.

So it takes time to get both doses of Covishield.

Because of the larger interval.

Another important question you might be wondering about is

should children be vaccinated as well?

With the age limit of 18 years, what will happen to the 17 or 16-year-old teenagers?

And even younger than them, what about the 10-12 year-olds?

Can they get the Covid infection?

Should they get vaccinated or not?

I think, ultimately everyone will need to get the vaccine.