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The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has turned into a global human tragedy and economic devastation. Governments have implemented lockdown measures, blocked international travel, and enforced other public containment measures to mitigate the virus morbidity and mortality. As of today, no drug has the power to fight the infection and bring normalcy to the utter chaos. This leaves us with only one choice namely an effective and safe vaccine that shall be manufactured as soon as possible and available to all countries and populations affected by the pandemic at an affordable price. There has been an unprecedented fast track path taken in Research & Development by the World community for developing an effective and safe vaccine. Platform technology has been exploited to develop candidate vaccines in a matter of days to weeks, and as of now, 108 such vaccines are available. Six of these vaccines have entered clinical trials. As clinical trials are "rate-limiting" and "time-consuming", many innovative methods are in practice for a fast track. These include parallel phase I-II trials and obtaining efficacy data from phase IIb trials. Human "challenge experiments" to confirm efficacy in humans is under serious consideration. The availability of the COVID-19 vaccine has become a race against time in the middle of death and devastation. There is an atmosphere of tremendous hype around the COVID-19 vaccine, and developers are using every moment to make claims, which remain unverified. However, concerns are raised about a rush to deploy a COVID-19 vaccine. Applying "Quick fix" and "short cuts" can lead to errors with disastrous consequences.

A prospective field study was carried out during an epidemic of non-A non-B hepatitis for determining the incidence and severity of hepatitis in pregnant women, nonpregnant women of child bearing age and men (15 to 45 years old). In 36 (17.3 percent) of 208 pregnant women viral hepatitis developed, as compared to 71 (2.1 percent) of 3,350 nonpregnant women and 107 (2.8 percent) of 3,822 men. The incidence of disease in pregnant women was higher than in the two control groups. The incidence of viral hepatitis in the first, second and third trimesters was 8.8 percent, 19.4 percent, and 18.6 percent, respectively. The incidence in all three trimesters was higher, when compared to that in nonpregnant women. In eight pregnant women (22.2 percent) with viral hepatitis, fulminant hepatic failure developed, as compared to its occurrence in three men (2.8 percent) and in no nonpregnant women. This significantly increased incidence of fulminant hepatitis in pregnancy was indicative of a greater severity of hepatitis during pregnancy. Increased susceptibility to fulminant hepatitis was observed exclusively in the last trimester. Nonfulminant viral hepatitis did not influence the course of pregnancy or fetal well-being. Fetal loss in fatal fulminant hepatitis was a consequence of maternal death and could not be ascribed to direct effect on the fetus or pregnancy.