Trials for a coronavirus vaccine have been paused twice(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Trials for a coronavirus vaccine are on hold in the US as AstraZeneca confirms that a patient in the UK trial suffered from a rare condition.
Experts have voiced concerns about AstraZeneca’s vaccine trials after
the company confirmed two UK volunteers suffered serious neurological illnesses.
Because of the illnesses, the study was paused twice, the second time earlier this month.
AstraZeneca said the first participant received one dose of the vaccine before developing inflammation of the spinal cord, known as transverse myelitis.
The condition is a rare inflammatory disease causing injury to the spinal cord with varying degrees of weakness, sensory alterations, and autonomic dysfunction, according to the National Organisation for Rare Disorders.
AstraZeneca said it had not confirmed a diagnosis in the second case, a participant who got sick after the second dose of the vaccine.
What is Vaccine? A vaccine is a biological preparation that provides active acquired immunity to a particular infectious disease. A vaccine typically contains an agent that resembles a disease-causing microorganism and is often made from weakened or killed forms of the microbe, its toxins, or one of its surface
proteins. The agent stimulates the body's immune system to recognize the agent as a threat, destroy it, and to further recognize and destroy any of the microorganisms associated with that agent that it may encounter in the future. The administration of vaccines is called vaccination. Vaccination is the most effective method of preventing infectious diseases; widespread immunity due to vaccination is largely responsible for the worldwide eradication of smallpox and the restriction of diseases such as polio, measles, and tetanus from much of the world.
Who are Mirror? What is to Suffer? Suffering, or pain in a broad sense may be an experience of unpleasantness or aversion, possibly associated with the perception of harm or threat of harm in an individual. Suffering is the basic element that makes up the negative valence of affective phenomena. The opposite of suffering is pleasure
or happiness.
Suffering is often categorized as physical or mental. It may come in all degrees of intensity, from mild to intolerable. Factors of duration and frequency of occurrence usually compound those of intensity.
What is COVID? Coronaviruses are a group of viruses that cause diseases in mammals and birds. In humans, coronaviruses cause respiratory tract infections that are typically mild, such as the common cold, though rarer forms such as SARS, MERS, and COVID-19 can be lethal. Symptoms vary in other species: in chickens
they cause an upper respiratory tract disease, while in cows and pigs they cause diarrhea. There are yet to be vaccines or antiviral drugs to prevent or treat human coronavirus infections.