Malaysia is in the process of developing two types of Covid-19 vaccines – one based on ribonucleic acid (RNA) or messenger RNA (mRNA), and an inactivated vaccine. These new jabs are being researched under the Institute for Medical Research (IMR), says Dr. Adham Baba, Minister of Health.
mRNA vaccines are a new type of vaccine to protect against infectious diseases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States. Both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines are created based on this technology.
As per the agency’s explanation, mRNA vaccines teach cells how to make a protein that triggers an immune response inside human bodies, which produces antibodies and protects humans from infection if the real virus enters the body.
Meanwhile, inactivated vaccines (such as Sinovac’s shot) use a “killed” version of the germ that causes the disease. According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, inactivated vaccines typically do not provide as strong protection as live vaccines (for example, the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine), so recipients may require booster shots over time to strengthen their immunity.
That said, it is still highly recommended that all of us get whatever vaccine is available, as they all share the common goal of granting us protection against COVID-19, as well as defangs the virus. Preventing hospitalisation and death.
While very little detail has been given about the development, the health minister said that he hopes this will accelerate the immunisation programme and help the country achieve its goal of herd immunity by year-end. We can infer from this statement that the new local vaccines could roll out by this year.
(Source: NST)
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