Healthy Reading #3 : Gianni Murzi

Healthy Reading #3 - Glimmer of Light

This week Healthy Reading focuses on the glimmer of light we see looking down the COVID-19 tunnel, given the fast advances in vaccine development, and first and foremost by the start of vaccination campaigns in Britain and Russia:  click here. These are undoubtedly good news.

In addition, the USA Food and Drug Administration got the green light from an independent commission to approve the Pfizer BionNTech vaccine.

But a question comes to our minds: How does it work? Already a comment made by our XUNICEF colleague Ramesh Shrestha last week raised our attention to this new technology that uses messenger RNA to combat the COVID-19 virus. Is it safe? We can read a detailed explanation  here  to find some answers.

Fouad Kronfol was pointing my attention to an article saying that an antiviral drug may stop the spreading of the pandemic, click here.

Meanwhile, as the world focuses on how to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic, scientist and researchers are not forgetting polio, as we might be on the verge to eliminate it completely from the planet, click here . The “Global Polio Eradication Initiative successfully certified global eradication of type 2 polio viruses in September, 2015, and type 3 in October, 2019, with the remaining most transmissible and virulent type 1 confined to Afghanistan and Pakistan.” The article looks at what can be done and argues that “ultimately, the development of novel OPVs could lead to an easier-to deliver and more cost-effective polio virus vaccine option than inactivated polio virus vaccine for countries that rely on OPV”.

Finally, I found this very interesting article in The Guardian about how our lives may change after COVID, and I recommend it to you. More on the same may be available to our readers on the subject. Please share your thoughts on this issue.

Gianni