When will we get a vaccine against COVID-19?
Clinical trials are underway for coronavirus Vaccine and Oxford university scientists say that the first few million doses of coronavirus vaccine would be available by September.
Epidemiologists at National Institute of Health’s Rockey Mountain Laboratory in Montana tested single doses of oxford coronavirus vaccine on six rhesus macaque monkeys which are exposed. Scientists involved in the research says that the sick monkeys were healthy after 28 days proving that this vaccine is effective on monkeys.
To prove the efficacy of the vaccine on humans, scientists at the Jenner’s institute, Oxford University of US have scheduled clinical trials for more than 6000 people at the end of next month.
On April 23rd in the United Kingdom, two human trials were injected with the coronavirus vaccine and 800 were recruited to a single-blind study in which, the participants does not know whether they receive the vaccine or the control. Half of the participants receive coronavirus vaccine and half of them receive the control vaccine which protects them against meningitis. Professor Sarah Gilbert of Oxford University says that she is 80% confident on the vaccine.
Production of a vaccine is a multi-sequential process. Which involves safety testing, test for effectiveness, efficiency and manufacturing. Currently, the scientists are conducting all four steps parallel at breakneck speed to find a vaccine against COVID-19. A vaccine should be both safe and effective, the American epidemiologists and pharmaceutical executives say that it could take at least 12 to 18 months for a vaccine to be available to the general public.
The world health organization says that “All ingredients in a vaccine help ensure they are safe and effective. Vaccine ingredient can look unfamiliar on a label, but they occur naturally in the human body, the natural environment and the food that we eat.”
Innovative technics in vaccine technology has given hope to the world following the race of the scientists and giant pharmaceutical companies for a vaccine. “70 coronavirus vaccines are under development with 3 in human trials”, says the World Health Organization.
The experimental vaccine developed by Beijing-based unit of Sinovac Biotech and by the Wuhan Institute of Biological Products in China and German biotech company BioNTech in Germany has passed the approval process for the clinical trials of the vaccination on human as a way to go ahead sign.
The famous American Epidemiologist Larry Brilliant says in a candid interview with the head of TED Chris Anderson. “This virus may not give us the long term immunity like smallpox virus. So we are trying to make vaccines where we add adjuvants that makes the vaccine to create better immunity than the disease so that we can confer immunity many years and that’s going to take a little longer” further Larry Brilliant says that he is pleased with the detection of the disease in a short period of two weeks and we should act together to as a global community to conquer a global pandemic.
By: Jumana Jabeer
