Moneycontrol Masterclass | 3 of India's top doctors will take all your questions on COVID -19 at 6 pm this evening. Tune in here

How can you protect your loved ones? What care do children need in these times? How can you stay safe at home? Our experts answer all your queries and more in today's Moneycontrol Masterclass at 6 pm. Stay tuned!

April 30, 2021 / 03:22 PM IST

The second wave of Coronavirus has ripped through India with ferocity. It has left loss & devastation in its wake, even as people struggle for oxygen, hospital beds and medicines. While an accelerated inoculation will help lift India out of the abyss what can people do to ensure they stay safe and don't burden an already creaking healthcare infrastructure?

How can you protect your loved ones? What care do children need in these times? How can you stay safe at home? What are the dos and donts to keep in mind when it comes to medication and vaccines?

Three of India's top doctors- Manipal Hospitals chairman Dr Ballal, Fortis Healthcare CEO Ashutosh Raghuvanshi and Covid expert Dr Pratit Samdani -will take ypur questions, debunk myths and explain various factors on the harsh second wave of Covid-19. Get a chance to ask your questions by logging in to Moneycontrol's website, YouTube and Facebook channels on Friday, April 30th at 6 PM. (can link to the pages here)

Moneycontrol Masterclass, an offering from India's leading financial news platform, focused on helping readers and viewers understand events and topics that really matter to them.

Missed the previous episodes of Moneycontrol Masterclass? Watch them here

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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