In December 2019, a new virus called COVID-19 occurred, and it started in Wuhan, China.

▲ This is a shape of COVID-19, seen under a microscope.

At that time, we did not know that this virus would become the worst virus that has ever occurred. Like MERS-CoV, COVID-19 was originated from a bat, which was sold in the market of Wuhan in an unhygienic way. After the first infection, it struck the whole world and infected more than 100 million people, and killed about 2.5 million people until now. However, nowadays, humans can be able to overcome COVID-19 through the use of a vaccine.

▲ It is a vaccine of Astrazeneca that is actually used.

In South Korea, about 91 thousand people have been infected, and 1.5 thousand people have been killed by COVID-19. Meanwhile, the government has started to vaccinate people. There are five types of vaccines available in South Korea. These are: AZD1222 (Astrazeneca), mRNA-1273 (Moderna), NVX-CoV2373 (Novavax), Ad26.COV2.S (Janssen), and BNT162 (Pfizer). Among them, Astrazeneca's vaccine is well known in South Korea. AstraZeneca uses a virus vector method that turns viruses harmless by putting vectors that modify other viruses into human cells. In this way, AstraZeneca uses Adenovirus 5 serotype (Ad5) as a vector, which is already used a lot in flu vaccines. They vaccinate twice taking four weeks term between each vaccination.

The Process of vaccination is operated into four steps, introduction, distribution and supply of vaccines, vaccination, and abnormal symptoms management. Also, the government prioritizes vaccinations based on risk and necessity. According to their plan, medical staff and epidemiologists have been vaccinated in February and March. Seniors, children, women, and men will be vaccinated in order until July.

Thanks to the development of vaccines, the situation has improved. However, we should remember that not all COVID-19 infections have disappeared. If we do not give attention, we will never be able to defeat this virus.

March 13th, 2021

by Ju Yup Je