Can we trust new coranavirus vaccines?

While BioNTech and Pfizer, as well as Moderna, are leading the race to develop a COVID-19 vaccine, other pharma companies — such as Sanofi, Sinovac and Johnson & Johnson — are expected to soon present candidates of their own.

According to the World Health Organization, 47 vaccines candidates are currently in clinical trials, of which 10 are in phase 3 efficacy trials. Russia has already registered two vaccines, one of which — Sputnik V — became available for public use in August. Experts, however, warn that this vaccine has been insufficiently tested.

Open questions

Many questions, however, remain unanswered. It is unclear, for instance, how effective these vaccines are, and how they affect individuals of different ages and those with pre-existing medical conditions. Little is known about whether the vaccines lead to long-term immunity, or if they can prevent severe, or indeed asymptomatic COVID-19 infections.

It is also not known how much the vaccines will cost, who will have access to them and in what quantity and at what time, and how they will be distributed around the globe.

Are the vaccines safe?

Independent monitoring groups registered no serious safety concerns with the vaccines being developed by BioNTech/Pfizer and Moderna. This does not, however, rule out the possibility of serious side effects occurring during large-scale testing, or when vaccines are given to persons with rare pre-existing health issues.

Intramuscular injections also bear to the risk of causing local reactions. Moreover, immune responses that entail the production of B cells and supportive T cells can lead to fever, chills, muscle aches or headaches.

In addition, both vaccines — BioNTech/Pfizer's BNT162b2 and Moderna's mRNA-1273 —  belong to a new family of vaccines that so far has not been approved for medical use. They contain nucleoside-modified messenger RNA which functions as a blueprint for the virus spike protein. Once administered, the vaccine stimulates the human immune system to produce antibodies against this protein and thus the virus.

What will the situation of plants, animals and people be in the future of the world?

Most plants and animals live in areas with very specific climate conditions, such as temperature and rainfall patterns, that enable them to thrive. Any change in the climate of an area can affect the plants and animals living there, as well as the makeup of the entire ecosystem. Some species are already responding to a warmer climate by moving to cooler locations. For example, some North American animals and plants are moving farther north or to higher elevations to find suitable places to live. Climate change also alters the life cycles of plants and animals. For example, as temperatures get warmer, many plants are starting to grow and bloom earlier in the spring and survive longer into the fall. Some animals are waking from hibernation sooner or migrating at different times, too.

As the Earth gets warmer, plants and animals that need to live in cold places, like on mountaintops or in the Arctic, might not have a suitable place to live. If the Earth keeps getting warmer, up to one–fourth of all the plants and animals on Earth could become extinct within 100 years. Every plant and animal plays a role in the ecosystem (for example, as a source of food, a predator, a pollinator, a source of shelter), so losing one species can affect many others.

What can people do about it? Just like people, plants and animals will have to adapt to climate change. Many types of birds in North America are already migrating further north as the temperature warms. People can help these animals adapt by protecting and preserving their habitats.