Last updated August 19, 2025
If the year 2020 will be remembered for anything, it is how a virus would affect an entire world. But what exactly is this virus, and what side effects do the vaccines that are supposed to come and save us from the pandemic have?
Coronavirus is a group of viruses that can cause both the common cold and far more serious diseases. The scientist who discovered the virus in the 60s called it corona (Latin for crown) because the jagged surface he saw in the microscope resembled the solar corona, which are the light rays around a solar eclipse.
The coronavirus, first discovered in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019, is named SARS-CoV-2 and likely originated from bats. The virus has presumably mutated so that it has begun to attack human cells, thus creating the new disease Covid-19, which is an abbreviation of coronavirus disease 2019.
The virus is highly contagious. In the first 12 months after the virus was first discovered, 70 million people worldwide have been diagnosed with the infection, and one and a half million have died as a result of the disease.
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The coronavirus gets its name from its characteristic crown (corona). (Photo: Envato)
Why do you get sick from the coronavirus?
The virus is coughed out by a host (i.e., another sick person) and flies through the air into the nose, mouth, or eyes of people nearby. The virus can be transmitted by direct contact, and can also survive for a time on surfaces, so it spreads by touching, for example, an infected doorknob and then getting the virus on oneself. The virus enters the cells of the infected person, and the cells then begin to produce new viruses that are transported further.
The reason you get sick is that the body does not recognize the virus because it is completely new and the body has never been exposed to any virus similar to this. The body recognizes large parts of the annual seasonal influenza viruses and therefore often has something to fight with if one comes, but this new virus will not meet any resistance in the body for many. The incubation period can vary from zero days to two weeks, but is most often five to six days. You can infect others before you yourself have symptoms of the disease.
The most common symptoms are cough, fever, sore throat, and muscle pain. Some get mild symptoms that go away within a week or two. Others get a worsening after a few days of mild symptoms and may need to be hospitalized, and some of these need intensive care to get help with breathing.
Do you have corona symptoms? Maybe it’s just a cold?
The Covid-19 vaccine is on its way, but how was it developed? (Photo: Envato)
How is the Covid-19 vaccine developed?
A new disease requires a new vaccine. In the months since this new coronavirus changed the world, a great deal of work has been done to develop vaccines that can save us from the situation we are in.
Safety is the top priority, and side effects should be avoided as much as possible. In addition, the goal is, of course, that the vaccine is as effective as possible. When the vaccine is to be developed, tests are first done on mice. This is to look for side effects and to check if the mice develop antibodies that are effective against Covid-19. Then, human testing begins, and as extensive testing as possible must be done before the vaccine can be released on the market. In phase one, a small group of people are tested. This group consists of healthy people, because if they get sick, it is important to know that it is actually the vaccine that is the cause and not an underlying disease. Here, the dosage to be used is also tested – too much can cause side effects, too little can be ineffective. In the next phase, the vaccine is tested on a somewhat larger group that should be representative of the population in terms of age, gender, ethnic origin, and underlying diseases. Here, too, it is checked whether the vaccine causes side effects and whether the dosage is correct. In phase three, the test group is further increased, and then many thousands of people are tested. Here, too, it must be a representative group, and in addition, a placebo group is used.
READ ALSO: To avoid getting infected, you must use face masks correctly.
When this testing has yielded the desired results, approval must be sought before the vaccine can be used. A vaccine is only approved if the benefits are considered greater than the risks.
In Norway, it is the Norwegian Medicines Agency that assesses the documentation and approves vaccines for use in Norway, in cooperation with European medicines authorities.
Face masks and disinfection of hands and surfaces help keep the Covid-19 virus in check. (Photo: Envato)
New vaccine technology
There are several types of vaccines under development. Some are based on traditional methods, while others use completely new technology.
The new technology may prove to be groundbreaking in future medicine. A code is injected into the muscle cells of the upper arm. The code is called mRNA (Messenger-RNA), and when it enters the cell, it uses the cell’s own machinery to create a part of the proteins that covid-19 has on its surface, the so-called corona part.
mRNA is something the body itself makes in all cells and is used to make everything the body needs, so you can actually say that the vaccine has only “stolen” the body’s own production method and uses this technology before the virus has time to do so. So nothing of the virus is made, only a small fragment of the package the virus is wrapped in. When this is produced, it is transported out of the cell where the body’s immune system finds it and considers it foreign. Thus, the body will make antibodies for this protein. When the actual covid-19 virus then comes, the body’s immune system will be prepared to prevent or limit the disease.
If you have corona, there is medical advice on how to deal with the disease.
When will the Covid-19 vaccine be available?
The new technology has been used by, among others, the American Pfizer and the German BioNTech, and it is these companies’ vaccine that may now be approved in the EU and Norway around the turn of the year. The Norwegian Institute of Public Health believes there is a good chance that we will get this vaccine to Norway in the near future.
Initially, people in risk groups will receive the vaccine first. This applies to residents of nursing homes and care homes, and then other elderly people and people with underlying diseases. After that, healthcare personnel will be prioritized.
In total, this amounts to just over 500,000 people in Norway, and it is uncertain how long it will take for the rest of the population to get the vaccine. Everyone who is offered the vaccine will be contacted by the health authorities.
For the time being, no vaccine will be given to children under 18 years of age.
People in risk groups are those who will get first priority when the Covid-19 vaccine is to be administered. (Photo: Envato)
Vaccine skepticism
Some are skeptical of the vaccine being developed as quickly as in this case, and many probably have the swine flu in 2009 quite fresh in mind. In Norway, about 45 percent of the population received the Pandemrix vaccine, and it has later emerged that about one child per 15,000 vaccinated developed narcolepsy in the years that followed. It is still not entirely certain whether it was actually the vaccine that led to these children developing narcolepsy. Also in countries that hardly vaccinated, the incidence of narcolepsy increased, which may indicate that the flu itself also caused this disease for some patients. The Pandemrix vaccine was a so-called model vaccine that contained parts of the influenza virus and was therefore a completely different type of vaccine than the one now being produced with new technology.
The new vaccines have so far not shown any serious side effects beyond certain allergic reactions.
Fortunately, there are very good figures for the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, which is already being administered in the USA, Canada, and the UK. Norway still has such good control over the infection that we can sit and wait for more results before we start vaccination. I recommend that all those who are skeptical familiarize themselves with what doctors and professionals write and what the research shows, and focus less on anti-vaccine conspiracy theories that have no documentation.
Have you fallen ill on holiday? The doctors at Eyr are available from morning to evening, even on public holidays.