Coronavirus pandemic: Doctors-turned-politicians don white coats again; Irish PM Leo Varadkar leads from the front

Indian leaders with medical degrees have also come forward in the hour of need.

Moneycontrol News

April 06, 2020 / 17:06 IST

Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar has decided to don his white coat and offer his services as a doctor once a week, The Guardian reported. He has decided to offer his services in areas that are within the scope of his practice, in order to help fight the coronavirus outbreak.

The 41-year-old leader reportedly rejoined the medical register last month following an appeal from the country's Health Service Executive to healthcare professionals who were not working in the field at the time, to step forward.

Having worked as a junior doctor in Dublin and qualified as a GP in 2010, Varadkar signed up following the call for help. His father who was an Indian immigrant, was a GP while his mother was a nurse.

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Meanwhile, Indian leaders with medical degrees have also come forward in the hour of need. According to a report by The Hindu, several such politicians who had quit their medical practice, joined the fight against the virus, following an appeal from the Centre.

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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