COVID-19 vaccinations: The unknowns, challenges, and hopes

Mohamed K 1 , Rzymski P 2 , Islam MS 3 , Makuku R 1 , Mushtaq A 4 , Khan A 5 Show all authors , Ivanovska M 6 , Makka SA 7 , Hashem F 1 , Marquez L 8 , Cseprekal O 9 , Filgueiras IS 10 , Fonseca DLM 11 , Mickael E 12 , Ling I 13 , Arero AG 1 , Cuschieri S 14 , Minakova K 15 , Rodríguez-Román E 16 , Abarikwu SO 17 , Faten AB 18 , Grancini G 19 , Cabral-Marques O 10 , Rezaei N 1

Affiliations 

  • 1 School of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
  • 2 Department of Environmental Medicine, Poznań University of Medical Sciences, Poznań, Poland
  • 3 Department of Tissue Engineering and Applied Cell Sciences, School of Advanced Technologies in Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
  • 4 International Higher School of Medicine, International University of Kyrgyzstan, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
  • 5 Department of Pharmacy, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan
  • 6 Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Research Center, Medical University, Plovdiv, Bulgaria
  • 7 Neuroscience Research Center, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Lebanese University, Beirut, Lebanon
  • 8 College of Social Sciences and Philosophy, University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines
  • 9 Department of Transplantation and Surgery, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary
  • 10 Department of Immunology, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
  • 11 Universal Scientific Education and Research Network (USERN), São Paulo, Brazil
  • 12 Department of Rheumatology and Physical Medicine, Erasme Hospital, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium
  • 13 School of Science, Monash University Malasia, Jalan Lagoon Selatan, Darul Ehsan, Selangor, Malaysia
  • 14 Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, University of Malta, Msida, Malta
  • 15 National Technical University "Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute", Kharkiv, Ukraine
  • 16 Center for Microbiology and Cell Biology, Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas, Caracas, Venezuela
  • 17 Department of Biochemistry, University of Port Harcourt, Choba, Nigeria
  • 18 Tunisia Polytechnic School, University of Carthage, Tunis, Tunisia
  • 19 Department of Chemistry, Physical Chemistry Unit, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy
J Med Virol, 2022 Apr;94(4):1336-1349.
PMID: 34845731 DOI: 10.1002/jmv.27487

Abstract

The entire world has been suffering from the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic since March 11, 2020. More than a year later, the COVID-19 vaccination brought hope to control this viral pandemic. Here, we review the unknowns of the COVID-19 vaccination, such as its longevity, asymptomatic spread, long-term side effects, and its efficacy on immunocompromised patients. In addition, we discuss challenges associated with the COVID-19 vaccination, such as the global access and distribution of vaccine doses, adherence to hygiene guidelines after vaccination, the emergence of novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variants, and vaccine resistance. Despite all these challenges and the fact that the end of the COVID-19 pandemic is still unclear, vaccines have brought great hope for the world, with several reports indicating a significant decline in the risk of COVID19-related infection and hospitalizations.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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