COVID-19 vaccine status tracker and average time taken for other viruses in history

The world is grappling with the catastrophic Coronavirus pandemic which originated from China's Wuhan late last year. So contagious was the virus that it took merely months to spread over 200 Countries and Territories across the world with over 3 crore infections and over 9 lakh fatalities.

With the virus spread of this magnitude, what remains a burning question is what is the status of the vaccines which are in development over this dreaded virus as almost all the advanced countries across the world are in the race to develop a potential vaccine at the earliest.

Experts estimate that a fast-tracked vaccine development process could speed a successful vaccine candidate to market in approximately 12-18 months. The United States, India, China, Britain, Russia and Australia among others are some of the countries which are working at godspeed to develop a potent vaccine that will put an end to this chaos, although the end of the virus will seemingly be gradual and not in one stroke as even after the development of vaccine, its mass manufacturing and even distribution will also pose a challenge in front of the vaccine makers, governments across the world and the global bodies such as the World Health Organisation.

Developing a vaccine is a gradual and prolonged task as the vaccine needs to be tested in several stages from animal testings to human clinical trials in various phases.

As far as COVID-19 is concerned, there are a little less than 50 vaccines in various stages of development across the world.

Let us have a look at some of the priminent ones: 

• ChAdOx1 nCOV-19 (Oxford University - AstraZeneca - Serum Institute of India ) : Phase 3
• mRNA-1273 (Moderna - United States) : Phase 3
• CoronaVac (Sinovac - China) : Phase 3
• Ad5-nCoV (CanSino Biologics - China) : Phase 3
• ZyCov-D (Zydus Cadila - India) : Phase 2
• Covaxin (Bharat Biotech - India) : Phase 2
• BNT162b2 (Pfizer / BioNtech - United States) : Phase 2
• Suptnik V (Gamaleya institute - Russia) : Already Approved

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Two of the several Chinese vaccines, one of the US vaccines and a vaccine developed by Oxford University an AstraZeneca in collaboration with Serum Institute of India are in phase III of human clinical trials. There are several more vaccines of which, two are India which are in phase II of human trials. Those Indian vaccines are Hyderabad based Bharat Biotech and Indian institute of Virology's Covaxin, and the other one is developed by Ahmedabad based Zydus Cadila's ZyCov-D.

Russian vaccine named Suptnik V has already been approved by the Russian Government in August, however, the vaccine, at the time of its approval had not conducted phase III of human clinical trials, hence there are apprehensions about the safety and efficacy of the vaccine even as Russia has released first batch of its vaccine for public consumption. The phase III trials of Sputnik V started in September.

COVID-19 vaccine could be out in the market in 12 to 18 months considering the speed at which nations across the world are working. The vaccines of other diseases, which were once considered deadly but later normalised are the development and availability of vaccine, took much longer than the tentative time required for COVID-19 vaccine to be developed, i.e. 12-18 months.    

Here is a comparison of the time taken for development of vaccines of other dreaded diseases:

• Polio (1948-1955) : 7 years
• Measles (1954 - 1963) : 9 years
• Chickenpox (1954 - 1988) : 34 years
• Mumps (1963 - 1967) : 4 years
• HPV (1991 -2006) : 15 years
• HIV : No vaccine found since 36 years, studies going on)
• Coronavirus: 1 to 1.5 years (Tentative)

Even after more than nine months, COVID-19 continues to grip the world, and as the health crisis continues to cause global despair by testing the patience of the economies and health infrastructures across the world, the desperation and eagerness for vaccines development also continues to increase.