Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2021 Apr 30;15(2):51-67.
doi: 10.2478/abm-2021-0008. eCollection 2021 Apr.

COVID-19 immunity and vaccines: what a pharmacist needs to know

Rula M Darwish  1
Affiliations
Review

COVID-19 immunity and vaccines: what a pharmacist needs to know

Rula M Darwish. Asian Biomed (Res Rev News). .

Abstract

COVID-19 vaccines are being produced using different platforms by different companies, some of which are entering Phase 3 and 4 trials. Due to the pandemic, this production has been accelerated, which leaves a window for speculation on the method of production and safety. Pharmacists are familiar with vaccination; however, COVID-19 vaccines are still new and further work is needed to clarify many aspects, including side effects, methods of storage, and number of doses. Prioritization of vaccination has been implemented to a certain extent, but no clear strategy is available. A comprehensive overview on immunity and immunological principles for the design of COVID-19 vaccine strategies is provided in this narrative review and the current COVID-19 vaccine landscape is discussed, in addition to exploring the principles for prioritization of vaccination using data from articles available in PubMed and from health organizations. Pharmacists should have a better understanding of COVID-19 vaccines and their manufacture. This would also allow better counseling of the public on COVID 19, immunization, and explaining prioritization basis and vaccination programs.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; coronavirus; pharmacist; vaccines.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Different stages of clinical trials for conventional vaccines by comparison with COVID-19 vaccines.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Adaptive immune response produced by SARS-CoV-2 (reproduced from Ref. [13] with permission). AG, antigen; APC, antigen-presenting cell; CTL, cytotoxic T-lymphocyte; IFN, interferon; IL, interleukin; MHC, major histocompatibility complex; TCR, T-cell receptor; TGF, transforming growth factor.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Stages of vaccine development.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Sanche S, Lin YT, Xu C, Romero-Severson E, Hengartner N, Ke R. Early release-high contagiousness and rapid spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. Emerg Infect Dis. 2020;26:1470–7. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Sohrabi C, Alsafi Z, O’Neil N, Khan M, Kerwan A, Al-Jabir A. et al. World Health Organization declares global emergency: a review of the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) Int J Surg. 2020;76:71–6. - PMC - PubMed
    1. de Wit E, van Doremalen N, Falzarano D, Munster VJ. SARS and MERS: recent insights into emerging coronaviruses. Nat Rev Microbiol. 2016;14:523–34. - PMC - PubMed
    1. World Health Organization Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Dashboard [Internet] Geneva: WHO; 2021. [cited 2021 Mar 24]. Available from: https://covid19.who.int .
    1. Chou R, Dana T, Buckley DI, Selph S, Fu R, Totten AM. Epidemiology of and risk factors for coronavirus infection in health care workers: a living rapid review. Ann Intern Med. 2020;173:120–36. - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources

-