"Everyone is focused on getting the vaccine"

Scientist Ignacio Aguiló analyzes the race in search of the covid vaccine.

The race for the vaccine against covid-19 does not stop. This same week there was the launch of a Russian vaccine. The biochemist Ignacio Aguiló, member of the prestigious team of Carlos Martín, a world-leading microbiologist, audits this intense scientific moment.

In the end, in this frenetic race for the vaccine, the Russians now say they have made further progress...

The World Health Organization (WHO) points out a lack of transparency. I'll explain myself. All vaccines have published data in scientific journals vetted by other scientists. And it is not known about the Russian vaccine... It does not mean that it does not work, but if there is no data, it is difficult to trust.

Do you trust...?

I have learned to be rigorous with my work. Just as in the Russian vaccine as in others, it is assumed that they will only work with intermediate phases of clinical development, which are Phases 1 and 2. Phase 3 remains to be carried out, which is the efficacy phase itself. I remember that it is being shown that vaccines induce an immune response, but it is assumed that this immune response will protect, and the latter is unknown until efficacy experiments are done.

Trump assures that he will have the vaccine before the November elections…

Trump is a politician, not a scientist. It is also true that they are very advanced. If the vaccine works in Phase 3, they even already have all the infrastructure to produce it. They have built factories before knowing the effectiveness of the vaccine.

This last piece of information is revealing…

The competition for the vaccine is healthy, and progress is being made very quickly. I would even talk about a geostrategic war to see who can take it out first. Vaccines are already being stockpiled, which, I reiterate, have not yet been released. England, China, the United States, the European Union... Everyone gathers together.

Will there be vaccines for everyone?

8.000.000.000 (eight billion) vaccines are not manufactured overnight...

Lots of zeros on the right…

The necessary ones. The WHO advises that the ideal is for the most vulnerable groups to be vaccinated first, not the richest countries.

Who is closer?

Science works through rigorous publications, through data transparency, through filters that guarantee its veracity. I have not seen the results of the Russian vaccine published anywhere. In Phase 3 are those of the Moderna company from the United States and that of Oxford. The latter has been in Phase 3 for at least a month. These are two subunit vaccines.

Subunits…?

Yes, subunits. It is a vaccine strategy. There are live attenuated vaccines, where the pathogen itself that causes the infection is introduced. Also, inactivated vaccines, where the pathogen is killed.

How do you kill?

For heat, for example. They are safe because they administer the dead pathogen. And then there are subunit ones, where you introduce just a piece of the pathogen: a protein or genetic material. Subunit vaccines are usually the fastest to advance because they do not work with the entire pathogen, but with a part of it. We work in Professor Martín's laboratory with a live attenuated vaccine.

Wonderful!

Our tuberculosis vaccine was attenuated in Professor Carlos Martín's own laboratory. When the coronavirus pandemic began, the BCG tuberculosis vaccine was tested to see if it worked. Ours is a cousin, so to speak, of BCG. Instead of humans, we work with macaques.

Humble, discreet, serious, rigorous... I have faith in Martín!

We expect results in September. Of course, I assure you that so much scientific progress has never been made in such a short time. Everyone is focused on getting the coronavirus vaccine.