Experts say that the production of vaccines that could halt asymptomatic infections could be the key to ending the COVID-19 pandemic.
Despite various vaccine distributions ramping in different countries, COVID-19 cases are climbing once again with a surge of infections looming in the near future, the world rages in a race against time to find an immediate solution to the devastating of the pandemic.
Experts say that the only way to beat the raging COVID pandemic is to find a vaccine that doesn't only prevent serious illness due to COVID-19 but one that can also block the spread of the virus.
Vaccines for Asymptomatic Infections
Dr. Peter Hotez, co-director of the Center for Vaccine Development at the Texas Children's Hospital explains that the ideal vaccine must be able to perform two core functions: prevent hospitalization due to severe illness and reduce mortality rates. Adding that if a vaccine could also block the spread of asymptomatic infections, the world could potentially vaccinate its way out of the pandemic.
A study published in the journal JAMA Network Open entitled, "SARS-CoV-2 Transmission From People Without COVID-19 Symptoms" estimates that asymptomatic cases involving people infected with COVID-19 but show no clinical symptoms account for more than half of transmissions of the virus.
Hence, if vaccines could effectively block asymptomatic infections, they could significantly reduce the overall transmission of the virus offering hope of early virus containment.
Role of Vaccines in Virus Containment
Dr. Becky Smith an associate professor of medicine at Duke University, explains that vaccines work by protecting against transmissions via the reduction of a person's viral load in the body.
As the world turns to the vaccines in the midst of the global pandemic, cases globally are on the rose once again. Some European countries are seeing a rebound in cases with parts of the US also reporting a sudden uptick in cases as states recently relaxed public health restrictions.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases explains that as the world is concerned with various COVID-19 variants, with some showing signs of being more contagious and infections than others, stresses that the US needs to vaccinate as many as they could to prevent further outbreak.
Recently, new data from Israel shows that roughly 60% of the country's 9 million population have received at least a dose of the COVID-19 vaccines suggesting that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is 94% effective in preventing asymptomatic infections.
A separate study by researchers at Cambridge University published in the journal Authorea entitled, "Single-dose BNT162b2 vaccine protects against asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection" found that a single dose of the famed Pfizer vaccine could reduce asymptomatic infections by up to 75%.
Despite the results not yet been peer-reviewed, it came from the careful analysis of over 4,400 tests done on vaccinated health care workers from Cambridge over the course of a two-week period back in January 2021.
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