Is the COVID-19 vaccine the only hope since the treatments carried out do not show results?

Even after almost a year of its global invasion, the SARS-Cov-2 virus named COVID-19 continues to enjoy an advantage over humanity, which is not surprising considering the unprecedented crisis caused by a virus that nearly no one knows, their seemingly selective approach in terms of mildness or severity of infection, baffling all doctors and medical scientists. Humanity, in its present very advanced stage of seeking knowledge, is never a party that accepts defeat and therefore the search has continued relentlessly for an effective vaccine and, meanwhile, research on antivirals or antivirals. -Reused malaria drugs, plasma therapy and other possible treatment methods. The main concern of all the efforts is to at least reduce the mortality rates which also differ inexplicably between countries, and to this day it has been an accepted fact that there is no cure for the disease. Several vaccine projects in various stages of development are in full swing in various countries, with most of them promising a vaccine by New Year’s Day or early next year. Now, the latest disappointing developments on the treatment methods practiced so far have raised the most relevant question: is an effective vaccine only a hope for humanity?

Most of us remember the desperate international yearning for a basically Indian anti-malarial drug called hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) when the pandemic was raging in Europe and the US, and the US President . However, slowly over time this medicine was found to be ineffective and a bit harmful as well with regards to natural immunity. Then there were various other drugs and steroids that were used with seemingly hopeful results, Remdesivir being the most welcome as a lifesaver.

The results of the Solidaridad Clinical Trial, one of the largest international Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs), conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO) since March 2020, which marked four of the most promising drugs as ineffective for reduce mortality. All four treatment methods tested, HCQ, Remdesivir, Lopinavir or Ritonavir and interferon, have been found to have little or no impact on mortality rates. When it comes to RCTs conducted in various countries around the world, including China, there have always been doubts about their findings, and experts feel the need for more such studies. Objections were also raised against the Solidarity Trial regarding its multi-sector sampling methodology, with an Indian hospital refusing to stop using Remdesivir citing its benefits for months on their patients. However, technically, it means that, except for corticosteroids that have proven effective in treating critically ill patients, there is no other treatment method considered, and it should also be remembered that steroids are not recommended for general or less severe patients.

Then came more disappointing news from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) about the efficacy of Convalescent Plasma Therapy (CPT), hitherto allowed as an investigational therapy in progressive stages of the disease in India, which involves removing blood plasma from patients recovered from COVID-19 and injecting this antibody-rich extract into positive patients, particularly the most serious ones treated in hospitals. Over the months, it has become a systematic treatment method creating suitable donation channels in every state, as the infected doctors also endeavored to donate the precious plasma.

The ICMR Director General declared the results on October 20, 2020 after conducting his own RCT during the period from April to July of the year that covered more than 400 hospitals in 39 medical centers in the country. Based on the results, the ICMR concluded that the CPT fails to reduce mortality rates or prevent the progression of COVID-19 infections from moderate to severe stages. Following this finding, the Government of India is considering the removal of CPT from its COVID-19 protocol for national clinical management. In fact, this is sad news as CPT has been a very popular method of treating COVID-19 in the absence of an effective vaccine.

Experts, however, are not convinced by the CPT results, saying it may have had to do with the delay in the infusion and the quality of the antibodies. Internationally, CPT remains a treatment method intended for emergency use only. In any case, given all these findings, the importance of discovering an effective vaccine grows even more. The pandemic is far from keeping its claws off humanity yet: after more than six months of haphazard acceleration, India finally peaked in the third week of September 2020 with new cases still hovering around fifty thousand a day and more than 500 daily deaths while the European countries and the US are experiencing a second wave.