Vaccines were commonly viewed as part of the exit strategy to return to prior employment, education, and socialization routines. It is important to increase the availability of doses for the immunization of the global population in order to control the COVID-19 pandemic, which involves tight cooperation between manufacturers and authorities. A global effort is warranted for the management of the virus and equal access to effective vaccines for all countries. This review examines the immunological responses elicited, safety, and SARS-CoV-2 protection offered by vaccine. This review also explores the essential phases between a promising preclinical trial and production on a large scale. The challenges faced during this pandemic and platforms built to address them during this pandemic will play a crucial role in the containment of future outbreaks. Nearly two years since the start of the pandemic, we are at a point where preclinical and clinical data are generated for vaccines can assist us in gaining a deeper understanding of this important area.

Background and purpose The lockdowns and restrictions enforced periodically during the COVID-19 pandemic posed a serious challenge for non-COVID care, especially in diabetes where telediabetes, the utilization of telemedicine consultations for diabetic care, became more necessary than ever before. Although studies have shed light on the perception of patients, there is a paucity of studies from the perspective of healthcare providers, especially in an Indian context. Moving forward, it is imperative to understand the perspectives of telediabetes providers in this domain. Hence, a nationwide survey was carried out to assess providers' practices and perspectives towards using telemedicine for providing diabetes care in India during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. Methods An online questionnaire-based, cross-sectional study was carried out involving diabetes care physicians. The study tool was developed after the identification of broad themes and constructs from published literature, national guidelines, and diabetes experts’ recommendations, following which, it was validated by six experts and pilot-tested. An online open survey, hosted on a professional platform, was circulated to internists, endocrinologists, and other diabetes care physicians of various institutions, hospitals, and clinics from both public and private sectors across the country through individual and group emails and various mobile messenger services. Results Out of the 239 doctors who responded to the survey, 195 (81.6%) had provided telediabetes services since the COVID-19 outbreak, and 84.1% were actively providing teleconsultations for diabetes at the time of the survey. The majority of participants (63.2%) were private practitioners. Telediabetes engagement was 3.5 hours per day at the peak of the pandemic and reduced significantly to one hour after the end of the pandemic. Video calling was the most preferred modality for consultation, whereas messaging services were preferred for input from the patients. Printed prescription images followed by text messages were the common modalities for sending treatment advice. The overall perception towards telediabetes was positive (50.1%). Most physicians reported being reasonably and somewhat aware (65.6% and 20.5%, respectively) of telemedicine practice guidelines but were not sure about the extent of compliance. Conclusions Our study sheds light not only on the utilization of telediabetes from physicians’ perspectives and practices but also on its acceptability while identifying areas requiring clarity and focus moving forward.