Evolution of Love 2

Vaccine for covid

Merck takes distance; you don't want to embark on a possible genocide.

Ken Frazier, CEO of the world's leading vaccine producer, the pharmaceutical company Merck & Co., in an interview with Professor Tsedal Neeley, from Harvard Business School, recalled that the fastest vaccine ever brought to market was medicine. from Merck against mumps, it took about four years!

- Merck's vaccine for Ebola took five and a half years and was only approved in Europe this month.

- The tuberculosis vaccine took 13 years! Rotavirus 15 years! and chickenpox 28 years !.

- Frazier explained that the vaccine development process takes a long time because it requires rigorous scientific evaluation. In the case of Covid, "we don't even understand the virus itself or how the virus affects the immune system ..."

- "No one knows for sure if any of these vaccine programs will produce a vaccine like this or not. What worries me most is that the public is so eager, so desperate to get back to normal, that they are pushing us [into the industry pharmaceutical] to move things faster and faster ”, he warned.

- "There are many examples of vaccines in the past that stimulated the immune system but did not provide protection. And, unfortunately, there are some cases where they not only did not provide protection, but helped the virus to invade the cell because the vaccine was incomplete ... ". Regarding its immunogenic properties, we have to be very careful, "said Frazier.

- Ultimately, "if a vaccine is to be used in billions of people, it is better to know what that vaccine does ...".

- "When people tell the public that there will be a vaccine by the end of 2020, for example, I think they do the public a disservice. We don't want to rush the vaccine before we have rigorous science.

- We have seen in the past, for example, with swine flu, that this vaccine has done more harm than good. We don't have a great history of introducing vaccines quickly in the midst of a pandemic. We have to take that into account ... ", reflected the CEO.

- In the last quarter of the last century, only 7 new vaccines were developed, 4 of them by Merck, against pathogens for which there were previously in the vaccine.

- For Frazier, the announcement of the arrival of a vaccine leads politicians and the population to reduce their attention with the virus.

- "There are seven thousand five hundred million people on the planet now. And we have never had a vaccine that has been used in a population of this size ...", said the executive.

- Frasier explained that it will be necessary to solve not only the problem of manufacturing on a scale that meets this number of people, but also to find ways to distribute the drug, particularly in areas of the world where people cannot afford the vaccine and also where the challenge of reaching those in need is greater.

- "We need politicians who have the will and integrity to tell people the truth ...", said the CEO of Merck.

- "And when you think about sending the children back to school, we will have to find a way to do it safely because the parents are arrested if the children are at home."

- "We must find a way to open schools, not to mention the fact that remote learning does not work for all children ...", said Frasier.

° Source: https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/merck-ceo-ken-frazier-speaks-about-a-covid-cure-racis...

° I share an opinion on the prospect of a vaccine that guarantees protection against Covid.

° Note: HIV is another example: 40 years and no vaccine.