Is Switzerland also relying on the Novavax vaccine? Yes. In addition to vaccines from Pfizer / Biontech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, Switzerland pre-ordered six million doses of Nuvaxovid in February. This vaccine is currently not yet approved in Switzerland and no application for approval has yet been submitted. Since, as with the two mRNA vaccines, two vaccine doses are required for complete protection, three million people can be vaccinated with this amount.
How does the Novavax vaccine work? Nuvaxovid is made up of virus-like particles that contain the coronavirus spike protein. The body recognizes the proteins as foreign and the immune system is activated – specific antibodies and T cells are formed. This means that you are better prepared for a real infection. mRNA preparations, for example, work differently. Here, body cells are stimulated with the help of snippets of genetic material to produce the spike protein themselves in order to trigger an immune response.
How well does Novavax’s new vaccine work? In a pivotal study by Novavax, its effectiveness in terms of disease was 90 percent. This means that 90 percent fewer diseases occurred among the subjects in the vaccinated group than among the subjects in a control group. Two doses were given three weeks apart. However, the results mainly relate to the alpha variant, which has been almost completely displaced by Delta in many countries. According to experts, the new Omikron variant will soon have a strong influence on the infection process. “This vaccine will also have to be adapted to Omikron,” wrote Carsten Watzl, Secretary General of the German Society for Immunology, recently with a view to the Novavax agent on Twitter.
Why do some people wait for certain vaccines? Some seem to have a greater reliance on vaccines made by traditional methods. For example, there is a distrust of the new mRNA technology on which the vaccines from Moderna and Biontech / Pfizer are based. There are concerns that these could cause previously unknown long-term damage. However, experts believe that it is almost impossible for the approved vaccines to have long-term effects that are still unknown.
When it comes to alternatives to the approved vaccines, the term dead vaccine is often used. What’s behind it? Inactivated vaccines contain killed, i.e. no longer able to reproduce, pathogens. They can also contain only components or individual molecules of these pathogens. Examples are vaccines against hepatitis A and influenza. The body cannot differentiate between the dead vaccine and the pathogen and activates a targeted immune system that protects against a real infection. For some people who have so far refused to be vaccinated, this approach sounds “more natural” than that of mRNA vaccines, for example.
Is the class of dead vaccines clearly defined? No. The term is not used consistently. If the definition is that the real virus or at least parts of it must be included in the vaccine, Novavax, for example, would not be a dead vaccine in the narrower sense. Because the crucial component that is supposed to trigger the immune response was not taken from a real virus, but is a genetically engineered virus protein. On the other hand, one could also say that all vaccines without living – i.e. reproductive – pathogens are dead vaccines.
Are there also live vaccines? Yes, for example against mumps, measles and rubella. They contain real pathogens that can still multiply, but whose disease-causing properties have been bred