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Understanding different ‘molecular soldiers’ is key to beating COVID
Anthony Fauci, chief medical advisor to United States President Joe Biden, stated that “neutralizing antibodies are the gold standard for protective immunity”.
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Vaccine for all: A medical worker shows Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine at Jurang Mangu community health center in South Tangerang, Banten on Jan. 15. (JP/Seto Wardhana)
T
he world is in shock watching the grim unfolding of uncontained COVID-19 infection in India and its escalating death toll. Despite mounting challenges, skepticism, vaccine nationalism and export embargoes, countries make their best efforts to vaccinate their citizens.
At the moment, Indonesia continues its efforts to vaccinate its citizens. There remains great hope and optimism regarding the potential of the COVID-19 vaccines to overcome and mitigate the pandemic, saving lives and restoring economic activity. The holy grail of the vaccination campaign is to achieve the coverage required for herd immunity.
The government has rightly placed the highest priority on expanding the vaccination program and allocated significant resources in order to achieve the goal of vaccinating the Indonesian population. At the time of writing, the UNICEF dashboard recorded that there would be 486.7 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines for Indonesia.
Given the likelihood that vaccine supply and allocation will remain a challenge in the near future and the fact that vaccines, regardless of manufacturer, are unlikely to be 100 percent effective in real-world mass immunization campaigns, and also taking into account cost considerations, a critical question to be addressed will be “how do we ensure that COVID-19 vaccines are deployed in the most efficient and effective manner possible?”.
To answer such a big question, we first need to know the answers to the following questions: Of those who receive the vaccine, who are actually protected from infection and disease? How long does the protection last? Will there be a need for booster vaccinations in the future? Who are likely to be non-responders to the vaccine? At the highest level, all these questions are related to the ultimate one: How will the pandemic end or be effectively contained?
The answers to these questions lie in our collective understanding and willingness to learn how our immune system’s “molecular soldiers” actually differ and fight the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
The human immune system produces vast arrays of “molecular soldiers”, and it is important to acknowledge they are not created equal. Following a COVID-19 vaccination, it is straightforward enough to determine the body’s response by testing for the presence of antibodies to the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
