SARS-CoV-2 vaccines: fast track versus efficacy

According to WHO, as of Feb 2, 2021, global cases of COVID-19 have surpassed 103 million, and deaths exceed 2·2 million. The word vaccine has become synonymous to the word solution, and vaccines against SARS-CoV-2—the virus that causes COVID-19—are the only solution to this pandemic, to avoid further mass casualties. Several frontrunner SARS-CoV-2 vaccines are already approved in 64 countries, surpassing the average pace of licensure and approval fivefold.1 More than 100 million doses of a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine have now been administered, and although the effect of the global COVID-19 pandemic has been vast, there is still hesitation about vaccine safety.