By the end of January 2022, almost ************ COVID-19 vaccine doses were manufactured in China, making the country by far the largest producer of COVID-19 vaccines globally. While most vaccines were for domestic use, a considerable portion of vaccines was exported via sales and donations, mainly to lower or middle-income countries. In comparison to western mRNA vaccines such as Comirnaty or Spikevax, inactivated COVID-19 vaccines developed by Sinovac and Sinopharm have a lower efficacy rate.

Biotech companies started clinical trials on potential treatments for COVID-19 just three months after the genetic sequence of the virus was made public. In comparison, companies entered clinical trials 20 months after the viral genome of the SARS coronavirus was sequenced.

A cure could take several more months Chinese authorities shared the genetic sequence for the SARS-CoV-2 virus in early January, allowing research groups to analyze how the virus infects human cells and makes people sick. Treatments are now in development; several have entered early clinical trials. Assuming all tests go well, a treatment for COVID-19 could still take up to 18 months before being approved for public use. New vaccines typically take years, and there is enormous pressure to make it safe and effective for all members of the diverse population.

Parallels with the SARS epidemic The SARS coronavirus was responsible for the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) that first affected humans in the Guangdong province of China in 2002. The official name for the coronavirus is SARS-CoV, which is very similar to the SARS-CoV-2 name chosen for the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 disease. While genetically related and believed to spread in similar ways, the two viruses are different. There were more than 8,000 reported cases of SARS before it was brought under control in 2003.

According to a May 2021 survey in the Philippines, Sinovac Biotech was the most preferred coronavirus (COVID-19) brand by Filipino respondents. The brand, which was developed by a Chinese biopharmaceutical company, was chosen by ** percent of Filipinos. In comparison, ** percent of the respondents stated that they prefer the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine brand. At the time of the survey, ** percent of the COVID-19 vaccines that arrived in the country were China's Sinovac followed by the United Kingdom's AstraZeneca.

As of June 27, 2022, around 93.7 million doses of Pfizer arrived in the Philippines. This was followed by Sinovac and AstraZeneca, with 56.11 million and 38.85 million vaccine doses, respectively.

COVID-19 vaccination in the Philippines started in March 2021.

As of March 10, 2023, there have been 1.1 million deaths related to COVID-19 in the United States. There have been 101,159 deaths in the state of California, more than any other state in the country – California is also the state with the highest number of COVID-19 cases.

The vaccine rollout in the U.S. Since the start of the pandemic, the world has eagerly awaited the arrival of a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine. In the United States, the immunization campaign started in mid-December 2020 following the approval of a vaccine jointly developed by Pfizer and BioNTech. As of March 22, 2023, the number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the U.S. had reached roughly 673 million. The states with the highest number of vaccines administered are California, Texas, and New York.

Vaccines achieved due to work of research groups Chinese authorities initially shared the genetic sequence to the novel coronavirus in January 2020, allowing research groups to start studying how it invades human cells. The surface of the virus is covered with spike proteins, which enable it to bind to human cells. Once attached, the virus can enter the cells and start to make people ill. These spikes were of particular interest to vaccine manufacturers because they hold the key to preventing viral entry.