Photo/Illutration COVID-19 vaccine candidates developed by AnGes Inc. with Osaka University and other researchers (Provided by Osaka University)

My hopes were practically shattered right at the start of my interview with Tetsuo Nakayama, 69, a project professor at Kitasato University and a specialist in clinical virology.

The first question I asked him was, how close is a novel coronavirus vaccine to completion?

"Using a track-and-field hurdle event as an analogy, we are somewhere around having cleared the first two hurdles out of 10," Nakayama answered.

Here are some excerpts from the interview.

Question: But I recall the Russian president boasting recently about a completed vaccine that was tested on his daughter.

Nakayama: The vaccine must still be in a very early stage of development. No medical paper has been published yet.

Q: Are you saying that the matter is not so simple?

Nakayama: Can the vaccine prevent infections? Does it cause any severe side effects? It takes time and work to ascertain all these things.

Q: How has the vaccine development gone with respect to various infectious diseases of the past?

Nakayama: It's been one failure after another. Whether it's for SARS or MERS caused by viruses similar to the novel coronavirus, the fact is there does not exist a single vaccine that has been clinically proven to be effective for humans.

A vaccine did eradicate smallpox. But it's obviously an impossible dream to hope for an effective vaccine for every infectious disease. 

With every country now competing fiercely to develop a COVID-19 vaccine, Japan has reached a joint supply agreement with U.S. and European pharmaceutical giants.

Whatever concerns were voiced before about the safety of vaccines appear to have been drowned out amid rampant public fear of the disease.

One after another, the leaders of superpowers have started saying they have secured enough for their own nations.

I dread the escalation of this sort of scramble that could result in people of developing nations being left with no supplies for themselves.

In this age of what I might call a "my country first” pandemic, my fear cannot be dismissed as unfounded.

Yet, I can't stop thinking of a viable vaccine as our only salvation.

But Nakayama cautioned, "Until the vaccine's effectiveness and safety are fully confirmed, I must ask for your patience and understanding."

All we can do is to wait calmly for completion of vaccines without being swayed by political propaganda. 

--The Asahi Shimbun, Aug, 27

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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