Waiting for COVID-19 Vaccine
Pediatrician; Head of the Children’s Infectious and Tropical Diseases Division of the Department of Pediatrics of the Medical School of Airlangga University (Unair)/Dr. Soetomo Regional General Hospital (RSUD), Surabaya
A researcher works in the laboratory of the Amsterdam UMC, in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, on May 28, 2020. - Griffioen\'s team is developing a vaccine against the COVID-19 disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
Ever since Edward Jenner began the history of modern vaccines by injecting an 8-year-old boy, James Tibbs, in England, quite a number of infectious diseases have been dealt with.There are three infectious diseases that we have managed to essentially defeat, namely smallpox (since 1978), polio – except in two countries that still have cases to this day – and rinderpest on cattle. The role of vaccines is difficult to deny.
In the case of other infectious diseases, vaccines have proven to be effective in reducing cases to a very minimal level. In countries with good immunization coverage, diphtheria and tetanus sufferers are already very few in numbers and newborns with rubella are unheard of in many countries.