COVID-19 Vaccination: A Necessitated Drive Becoming an Unsolved Puzzle

Abstract

AbstractThe scientific community has achieved a remarkable feat by developing COVID-19 vaccines in a record duration of 12 months. The fastest vaccine developed and deployed previously was within a time-frame of four years, to prevent mumps in the 1960s. The speedy approach to prevent SARS-CoV-2 has changed the future of vaccine science with several vaccines showing excellent results in large trials. The COVID-19 vaccination strategy is of crucial importance for controlling the pandemic. As the vaccination mandate was faster than information dissemination, and even faster than the clinical trial results in some regions, numerous challenges emerged during the implementation of the vaccination strategy. The author discusses the objectives of the vaccination drive that include: reduction of overall COVID-19 severity and mortality; re-opening of society; disease elimination; reduction of pressure on the healthcare system; and equitable distribution of vaccines across all regions of the globe. While reflecting on these objectives, the author discusses the importance of transparency in vaccination surveillance data and the way forward.