Fordham Taps Leading Immunologist to Explain Rapid Development of Safe Covid-19 Vaccine

NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / August 2, 2021 / Vaccine development usually takes a decade or more, so how were researchers and scientists able to create the Covid-19 vaccine in less than a year without compromising safety? The Fordham School of Professional and Continuing Studies hosted Helen Fletcher, BSc Ph.D., Professor of Immunology and Associate Dean of Research at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, for a live discussion July 21 on how the vaccine was developed, what researchers learned and how these methods can be used to accelerate the process for other diseases.

The virtual event, “How Was the Covid-19 Vaccine Developed So Quickly,” was held as Fordham launches a Master of Science in Applied Health Informatics at its London campus and online.

Applied health informatics creates new opportunities for treatment and drug therapies through the use of artificial intelligence, big data and advanced analytics. “Health informatics is about the engineering of information systems and the science of health care information, gathering and analysis,” said John Chelsom, PhD, Director of Fordham’s Applied Health Informatics program, to be offered this fall. “We’ve seen in the last year how important it is to have access to clinical information in health care.”

Chelsom and Fletcher discussed the role of applied health informatics as it relates to Covid-19 vaccines, how scientists used data from around the world – received in real-time – to make critical decisions and how this will propel scientific discovery. Health information systems “have been pivotal in the way we have been rolling out these vaccines, in the decisions we’ve been making and how we’re responding to the variants, of picking up the safety signals,” said Fletcher.

“For Covid-19, we really threw everything at it as a scientific community,” said Fletcher. “Those of us who work in vaccine development knew we had to get a vaccine out there. Vaccines are the way we can control disease and, indeed, even eliminate disease, as we’ve done with Smallpox and Rinderpest.”

Using a current global snapshot from the World Health Organization, Fletcher noted there have been more than 190 million confirmed Covid-19 cases and more than 4 million deaths. “So far, we have administered more than three-and-a-half billion vaccine doses, whereas this time last year, we had no licensed vaccines for Covid,” Fletcher said. “So, we’ve gone from zero to three-and-a-half billion doses.”

Vaccine development usually takes several years, Fletcher said, and noted she worked on a tuberculosis vaccine at the University of Oxford that took more than 10 years, from the first-phase trial to getting clinical results. “This is fairly typical of vaccine development,” Fletcher said. “At each stage you have to secure funding, you have your design, process development, approvals for clinical trials, three phases of clinical trials, data for regulatory approvals … and once you have your regulatory approvals you can then look at large-scale production and distribution.”

With the Covid-19 vaccine, Fletcher said, developers didn’t take shortcuts. Instead, they looked at ways they could “condense the timeline that could take 10 years down to 10 months because they knew we couldn’t wait.”

“This was done by investing huge amounts of time, energy and money,” Fletcher said. “As soon as the vaccines went into the first phase-one safety study, instead of waiting to see what the data looked like the pharmaceutical companies immediately took the risk to go ahead with manufacturing even if they ended up investing millions of pounds, millions of dollars, into a vaccine that was ultimately not used.”

One audience member questioned the vaccines’ safety, saying the U.S. Food and Drug Administration states there is no approved vaccine for Covid, and asked, “Are we just part of a big experiment?”

“The approvals are there,” Fletcher said. “We were not part of an experiment. These are fully licensed vaccines, but the regulatory agencies are insisting the vaccine developers keep following the data over a long period of time just to make sure that all is OK.”

For a link to “How Was the Covid-19 Vaccine Developed So Quickly,” click here: https://youtu.be/Tu1N0ZfBQBY.

Fordham hosted the discussion as it rolls out its new Master of Science in Applied Health Informatics, which begins Sept. 27 and is being offered on Fordham’s London campus and online. Students can register full- or part-time for the 36-credit online program and earn their degree in as little as one year. The program also includes an optional one-week residency in St. Edmund Hall, the oldest residence at the University of Oxford. Fordham will host an Express Admissions Day Aug. 20. For information, visit the website.

“Our Applied Health Informatics program combines theory with real-world applications and allows students to work with experts in the field in a hands-on, mentored framework,” said Chelsom.

ABOUT FORDHAM SCHOOL OF PROFESSIONAL AND CONTINUING STUDIES:

The School of Professional and Continuing Studies (PCS) offers students a quality education in a small, personalized atmosphere that promotes individual growth and exploration. With three convenient campus locations – Lincoln Center in Manhattan, Rose Hill in the Bronx and West Harrison in Westchester, PCS is poised to meet students’ academic needs. Classes are offered evenings, weekends and online in areas including Business, Organizational Leadership, Economics, Legal and Policy Studies, and Social Work. Certificates in Digital and Social Media Marketing and Human Resource Management are also available, as well as Post-Baccalaureate / Pre-Medical / Pre-Health. The Fordham Real Estate Institute, which is part of PCS, offers Graduate Degrees, Undergraduate Degrees and multiple Certificate Programs in Real Estate at the Westchester and Lincoln Center campuses. Visit https://www.fordham.edu/pcs for more information.

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Speaking at the Fordham’s July 21, 2021 event, “How Was the Covid-19 Vaccine Developed So Quickly,” were (from top left): John Chelsom, PhD, Director of Fordham’s Applied Health Informatics master’s program; Helen Fletcher, BSc Ph.D., Professor of Immunology and Associate Dean of Research at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine; and Andie Marais, Associate Dean of Strategic Marketing and Enrollment, Fordham University School of Professional and Continuing Studies.

Media Contact: 

Caryn McBride
Co-Communications Inc.
cmcbride@cocommunications.com

SOURCE: Fordham School of Professional and Continuing Studies

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