IT is clear that the Covid pandemic has left the NHS, and health services around the globe, with a mountain to climb when it comes to recovery.

Some of the predicaments - such as staff shortages and waiting lists - have been made worse by the havoc wreaked by the disease, while others - such as long Covid - present a new and perplexing challenge.

Against this backdrop, it might seem unlikely that the experience of the past three years could throw up any positives for public health.

If there is a silver lining to be found, however, it lies with the scientists who have seized on technologies developed during Covid and are now driving these forward to develop everything from simple diabetes tests to new and potentially life-saving vaccines.

The Herald: Paul Brand (inset) of Moderna says the firm expects to be rolling out vaccines for cancer by the end of the decade using the same mRNA technology deployed in Covid vaccinesPaul Brand (inset) of Moderna says the firm expects to be rolling out vaccines for cancer by the end of the decade using the same mRNA technology deployed in Covid vaccines (Image: Getty)

On Saturday, it emerged that Moderna - one of the Covid vaccine manufacturers - expects to have personalised cancer vaccines for various tumour types ready for rollout by 2030.

In essence, cancer vaccines are the next frontier in immunotherapy.

They are designed to help the body's immune system recognise and attack cancer cells in patients who already have the disease.

READ MORE: Disease X, Covid surveillance, and stopping the next pandemic 

The vaccine is formulated by sending a biopsy of a patient's cancer to a laboratory for genomic analysis by an artificial intelligence programme.

As with human DNA, each person's tumour carries its own unique genetic signature which can be sequenced.

These specific mutations can be identified and used to generate an individually-tailored molecule of messenger RNA - the same 'instruction manual' used in mRNA Covid vaccines to train the body to attack the virus.

In the case of cancer vaccines, these mRNA molecules trigger the immune system find and destroy any cells covered by a certain type of protein that marks out the tumour cells.

Most cancer vaccines remain experimental and are usually only available to patients via clinical trials, although US drug regulators did grant Moderna's skin cancer vaccine special breakthrough status in February.

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The designation means that it can be prescribed to some high-risk patients in combination with the immunotherapy medicine, Keytruda, following mid-stage data showing that this reduced the risk of skin cancer recurrence by 44 per cent versus Keytruda alone.

However, Dr Paul Burton - the chief medical officer for Moderna - has caused excitement by suggesting that the US pharmaceutical firm expects to be in a position to offer "highly effective" vaccines for cancer, cardiovascular, and autoimmune diseases by the end of the decade.

Dr Burton told the Guardian: “I think what we have learned in recent months is that if you ever thought that mRNA was just for infectious diseases, or just for Covid, the evidence now is that that’s absolutely not the case.”

He added that mRNA platforms could also be harnessed for genetic diseases that were "previously undruggable".

"I think that 10 years from now, we will be approaching a world where you truly can identify the genetic cause of a disease and, with relative simplicity, go and edit that out and repair it using mRNA-based technology.”

READ MORE: Waiting times, incidence and mortality rates - what's really going on with cancer in Scotland? 

Meanwhile, BioNTech - the German pharmaceutical firm behind the Pfizer Covid vaccine - is in the early stage trials for an experimental malaria vaccine using the same mRNA technology.

It may be behind the curve, however, with Ghana having this week become the first country in the world to approve the R21 malaria vaccine invented at the Jenner Institute in Oxford - the same lab responsible for the AztraZeneca Covid jab. 

Preliminary trial data from Burkina Faso found that three doses of the R21 jab plus a booster one year later provided up to 80% protection against malaria, results which have been hailed as a "world changer" for disease that claims around 620,000 lives a year.

Already the Serum Institute of India - a major player in the manufcture of Covid vaccines - is preparing to produce between 100-200 million doses of R21 per year, with predictions that the eradication of malaria could finally be in sight. 

The Herald: Hopes that malaria could be eradicated through vaccination in the near future have been raised after preliminary results, with an mRNA-based product also in early stage trialsHopes that malaria could be eradicated through vaccination in the near future have been raised after preliminary results, with an mRNA-based product also in early stage trials (Image: Getty)

And back in Scotland, scientists in Aberdeen are pivoting from Covid antibody tests to early detection of conditions such as diabetes and Lyme disease. 

On Wednesday, it emerged that an Aberdeen University spinout company, Vertebrate Antibodies Ltd (VAL), has joined forced with US biotech giant, IMG, to develop lab-based and on-the-spot diagnostic tests for Lyme disease and diabetes that will be cheaper and more accurate than those currently available.  

Both conditions are notoriously difficult to detect early, hindering timely intervention.

The tests will hinge on adapting virus "hotspot" technologies developed by VAL during the pandemic to identify Covid antibodies. 

Dr Abdo Alnabulsi, cofounder and CEO of VAL, said he is confident that the Aberdeen firm's technology and products "will make a global impact". 

READ MORE: Obesity, deprivation, women - and the surprising cost of being 'too fat'

In the case of diabetes, it comes as the UK faces a "rapidly escalating" crisis. 

New figures on Thursday revealed that cases have topped five million for the first time since records began.

The vast majority of cases - 90% - are type 2 diabetes, which is strongly linked to obesity. 

As well as being more prevalent in the poorest areas, it is also becoming increasingly common among the under-40s.

Charity Diabetes UK said this was particularly "alarming" given that children and young people experience more aggressive effects from the disease, and are at higher overall risk of developing complications such as blindness, heart disease and kidney failure. 

The Herald: Rates of Type 2 diabetes are rising among under-40s in the UK, in tandem with obesityRates of Type 2 diabetes are rising among under-40s in the UK, in tandem with obesity (Image: PA)

The pandemic laid bare the consequences of the UK's unhealthy and unequal society as people who were obese, had diabetes, or lived in the most deprived areas succumbed to Covid in disproportionate numbers. 

If we can reap the scientific rewards of the pandemic to save lives in future, we shouldn't ignore the imperative to improve basic population health in the here and now.