As I see it | Coronavirus: national pride has no place in vaccine development while a global pandemic is raging

The stakes have risen since scientists first aimed for a safe Covid-19 vaccine that was 50 per cent effective

Research from every candidate, whether a success or failure, contributes to global scientific efforts to stop the virus

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The development of Covid-19 vaccines to end the pandemic should be dictated by science not nationalism. Photo: Getty Images

Published: 5:49pm, 20 Apr 2021Updated: 7:32pm, 20 Apr 2021

Until late last year, scientists had been satisfied with a safe Covid-19 vaccine that was more than 50 per cent effective.

That is a realistic expectation for a first-generation vaccine and it is how flu shots have fared.

For a pandemic such as Covid-19, any means of cutting hospital admissions and the number of deaths was a relief.

But expectations were raised after the two vaccines using mRNA technology achieved a surprising 95 per cent efficacy rate.

There were reports some people in Western countries would not want to take the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine because they thought it less effective than the mRNA vaccines, prompting experts to advocate that “the first available vaccine is the best vaccine”.

Never in human history have so many teams worked simultaneously to develop vaccines using different technologies. It is only natural that some fare better than others, and some fail altogether.

.css-1m2rp1p{color:#34b8b5;}As I see it | Coronavirus: national pride has no place in vaccine development while a global pandemic is raging

As I see it | Coronavirus: national pride has no place in vaccine development while a global pandemic is raging