During the current pandemic, there are over 100 vaccines being tested on humans worldwide. The average human today is a subject for a vaccine. Do you think that different vaccines may work on different people due to factors such as race and location? For example, some vaccines may work for Asians who live in colder climates, but will that same vaccine work for Asians who grew up in the states? The same for native Nigerians or native Caucasians. Certain vaccines may work for a set of people with set conditions. Here in America, also known as the melting pot, how will we know which vaccine works for us seeing how our mRNA strands have been more modified over time compared to indigenous people?
During the current pandemic, there are over 100 vaccines being tested on humans worldwide. The average human today is a subject for a vaccine. Do you think that different vaccines may work on different people due to factors such as race and location? For example, some vaccines may work for Asians who live in colder climates, but will that same vaccine work for Asians who grew up in the states? The same for native Nigerians or native Caucasians. Certain vaccines may work for a set of people with set conditions. Here in America, also known as the melting pot, how will we know which vaccine works for us seeing how our mRNA strands have been more modified over time compared to indigenous people?
The best thing to do will just continue to participate in clinical trials. It is hard to determine what will work and what will not. Like you stated America is a melting pot so the results will always vary. The results can differ based on diet, health, and race so I am not sure how we will know which is best. I know a few people in my family have received different vaccinations and had different side effects from each one. The best thing to do would be to continue clinical trials and monitor the dosage of each vaccination provided.
Its a tough call. At this point, animals aren't really the forefront of the COVID-19 vaccine study. Humans are. We have no real data since everything is done in real time. It is almost like we are experiencing everything all at once in this country with respect to this pandemic.
I agree with @samscott. Being that all the research is being done in real time, we can not sit and compare multiple data points to test your theory @mejefferson. I would like to think that certain vaccines work for certain people and certain areas because of the external factors, diet, etc., but there is truly no way to prove that without the more data.
I think this is something to really think about when it comes to medicine, does the one size fit all method really works? Should blood type, race, region, and other environmental factors play a role on the efficacy of the drug? For instance, would a drug dosage be affected by a person height? Would it release the same or effect the symptoms the same at the same dosage? Or just like shoes , one size does not fit all.
I agree with the prior authors of the statements saying that there currently is no way to prove on why a vaccine may be more effective. You could compare it to different generations of people living in a specific area, but that may typically work best in countries that have not had a diverse population or key changes in history that diversified their population. There are regional differences between people that probably do play a role in this, but there are too many variables that one would need to factor in to fully understand vaccine efficacy in a population. This would also be a complex study to find those who don't have the vaccine who are of a certain population as well as understand the lethal dose of the vaccine to be able to fully flush out levels of efficacy. Overall, I do believe it would be a very novel type of work, but one that doesn't have the ability to be used in a real world application.
I believe that the vaccine works differently on people with different race and location. One study has shown that different races react differently in an antibody response to the influenza vaccine. Similarly, the COVID vaccine is alike or any other vaccine. However, it is nearly impossible to determine which factors are responsible for its efficacy as there are way too many factors as well as different variations. Some of the factors include pre-vaccination gene expression, location, environment, race, and medical history. Therefore, it is better to focus on the overall efficacy of the vaccine on humans rather than the specific factors that make it efficient
I think it is important to tackle that question early on in clinical trials as opposed to after the vaccine rollout. We can't really know how the vaccine affects other certain individuals if they're not included in clinical trials to begin with. For instance, it was shown in the briefing documents for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccine that the racial diversity in the clinical population was lacking, with approximately 79%-82% of participants being mostly white. People of color have historically been underrepresented in clinical studies due to a slew of factors discussed in this article (Racial Diversity within COVID-19 Vaccine Clinical Trials: Key Questions and Answers | KFF). The article also has the FDA briefing documents for both vaccines attached if anyone wants to see the racial breakdown of the study's participants back in December 2020.
Race and location could affect someone's upbringing and how much they can access whether it be nutritious food, stable occupations, or good healthcare. These things could definitely affect someone's bodily chemistry and in turn how they react with the vaccine. So it's vital to have a diverse clinical population initially, not just to find out how it affects people other than white people, but possibly to instill confidence in those who were and/or are skeptical of the vaccine.
I believe that the efficacy of the modern era vaccine especially the covid vaccine and every other vaccine most definitely indirectly affected different populations different than other populations. The socioeconomic status of certain populations as well as quality of healthcare and other underlying conditions of various populations most likely do have an affect on the vaccine efficacy. One simple example that was seen with the COVID vaccine was the presence of symptoms in various people. Some people had mild symptoms, some people had no symptoms at all while others suffered severe symptoms due to the vaccine. This is vastly dependent on the persons immune response to the vaccine and therefore could have the possibility of affecting the vaccine efficacy. I believe the best way for this to be remedied is for more and more clinical trials looking at how vaccines affect different communities differently and what underlying conditions can factor more into the vaccine efficacy.
I agree with the points made above that a study should be done to further investigate this. It should even go further to study gender as well. It is important to be extremely detailed and inclusive when posing this type of question. Including gender can pose the question regarding hormonal effects, if there is a vast difference between the genders and vaccination side effects and efficacy. In regards to variations of vaccine efficacy based on race, it is definitely an area that needs more research done. It would be interesting to see if the vaccine performed differently based on race. While we are all created equal, it is important to recognize that we are all different and there were many different reactions people had to the vaccine. I cannot say for sure whether or not I think race and location plays into vaccine efficacy, but I do think that gender may play a role in vaccine efficacy and side effects.
Its definitely an interesting observation that now, more than any other time in history, there is a large population of mixed race individuals that combine the biological profiles of multiple races. This is not a unique issue for the covid vaccine to not have represented these populations in the clinical trials, however this is an opportunity for studying these populations in the development/improvement of the next doses of the vaccine treatment. As the general population is vaccinated, data about our reactions to the vaccine are being documented and can be segmented to reflect the multiple races that make up an individual's genetic profile. Maybe there is no racial impact, only environmental impact, or its a combination of multiple factors. Regardless, I think it is important to study this underrepresented population.
@sseal98 I agree that underlying conditions play the biggest role in how COVID is affecting individuals when it comes to severity of illness and how likely an individual is to be hospitalized or have mild symptoms. At the same time, there are other factors that can cause a COVID vaccine to work better than others. There has been a lot of research on how drugs affect different races and genders. There are some Cardio Vascular Disease treatments that work better in Caucasians then in African Americans. There are also some treatments and prescriptions that work differently in males then in females because of hormone levels. This can even be true when it comes to side affects. If you look at Johnson and Johnsons vaccine, there have been 28 cases of blood clotting linked to the vaccine and it seems to be more prevalent in women affecting 22 women and only 6 men. So there can definitely be a variety of different factors which could make the vaccine work better certain individuals because of hormones, genes, age, or a variety of other differences in everyones physiology.
https://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/pharmacogenetics-personalized-medicine-and-race-744/
I’m not sure of all of the aspects of pharmacological therapy. However, I do know that in healthcare they look at geographical data, as well as ethnic factors that contributes to certain health related issues. They do this because, not everyone has access to the same things, and everyone has different eating habits as well as environments, and different genetics. Not all medicines will work the same given different economical factors. Not everyone can afford the same care, and also, not everyone has the same predisposition. When it comes to vaccines, I am not entirely sure if the protection from viruses is different among races. But we have all gotten the same vaccines since birth, all races, and haven’t had issues. But I think it is interesting to explore. What if it provides the same protection for all races, but has a different adverse effects or idiosyncratic effect on different races? That is a very great thought-provoking question.
I do believe that certain vaccines may work differently on people of different races based on many factors. Everyone comes from a different and unique background and this can cause different outcomes when it comes to vaccines and treatments. Currently with covid-19 it's been known to affect people differently that have pre-exisiting conditions such as high blood pressure and diabetes for example. This can also apply to the vaccines and how it works or does not work based on a person's race and environment. There are still many people that cannot afford proper health care and this can cause vaccines to not work effectively in people of different races and locations around the world.
Honestly vaccine in today time are being tested in real time on humans compared to animals.However due to we are in the middle of a pandemic I can see the importance and severity of the vaccine testing due the death rate is rising at a rapid rate.
