Is Vaccine Better Than Drug In The Fight Against Covid-19?

Covid-19 drug or Vaccine

The world is battling a pandemic that is affecting both the rich and poor. It is called covid-19. There is no drug or vaccine available yet to treat or prevent it. There is currently several research for a drug and or vaccine. The expected time these would be available is not until next year. Do we really need drugs or vaccines? Or do we need both of them? Let us find the answer to these questions. But before then, what is a vaccine and drug?

Vaccine For Covid-19

A vaccine is a biological preparation (biologics) that provides active acquired immunity to a particular infection disease. It consists of part of a disease causing microbe. It is often gotten from weakened or killed forms of the microbe, it's toxin or one of the surface proteins. The agent stimulates the body immune system to recognize and destroy any of the microbes associated with that agent it may encounter in the future.

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Vaccines can be for prevention (prophylactic or ameliorate the effects of a future infection by a natural or wild pathogen) or treatment (therapeutic cure e.g. cancer).

Drugs For Covid-19

Drugs are substances that cause a change in an organism physiology or psychology. Pharmacology drugs called medicine have a typical structure used to treat, cure, prevent, diagnose a disease or promote wellbeing. They are either obtained from a medical plant or organic synthesis.

Difference Between Vaccine And Drug

Drugs used to kill or reduce the activities of microbes are called antibiotics. Antibiotics kill indiscriminately whereas vaccines are highly targeted. Most antibiotics treat a disease condition while most vaccines tend to prevent it. While drugs are individualized, vaccines are for a group of people.

Similarity Between Vaccine And Drug

They both can cause adverse drug reactions. They both contain the excipient and maybe more than one active pharmaceutical ingredient (API). They can both interact with disease, other vaccines or drugs. They are both subjected to safety, quality and efficacy tests.

Which Is Better

There is more research on vaccines for covid-19 than on drugs. That is because it is easy to source for a vaccine candidate and development takes a shorter time. That did not prevent some from embarking on the drug Discovery and development for a drug candidate.

We may not need a vaccine and a drug. It all depends on so many factors. If a vaccine comes out first and at the same time effective in the management of covid-19, a drug will not be needed. If the vaccine could not completely eradicate the disease, an effective drug may be necessary. It is possible for all the vaccine candidates to fail completely just like in malaria and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. In that case, a successful drug will be welcome.

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If a drug comes out first and is effective in combating the disease, good for all. A vaccine may not be needed. However, if the drug acts like antimalarials whereby the drug treats the infection but the situation does not lead to immunity, a vaccine may be required. 

The bottomline is if one is able to manage the disease, the other will not be needed. However, if both play synergetic roles in the management of the infection, then we will see both vaccine and drug in the market. Their mechanism of action will determine how they will be administered.

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