COVID-19 reasons for hope: Vaccine trials take center stage
At Medical News Today, we have been looking at how scientific advances are providing much-needed hope during the COVID-19 pandemic. This Special Feature discusses the recent progress of vaccine clinical trials and different ways in which researchers hope to fight the brand new coronavirus.
What exactly are the shining beacons as of this uncertain time? That is a question that people, at MNT, have already been asking ourselves.
To attempt to answer it, almost every other week, we review the most recent coronavirus research and present our readers with promising and reassuring findings from scientific tests.
Last fortnight, in the Special Feature entitled COVID-19: Vaccine could be ready by fall and other reasons for hope, we spoke about how precisely researchers from the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom planned to kickstart clinical trials for a new vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, hoping to own it ready by fall 2020.
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In this Special Feature, we describe how those plans have progressed and appearance at other steps that specialists have been taking to put a finish to the pandemic.
First volunteers enter U.K. vaccine trial
On April 23, the University of Oxford announced the launch of the U.K.’s first human trial for a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine.
The researchers expect that the trial will involve about 1,100 volunteers, half of whom will receive using the experimental vaccine as the other half receive a vaccine for meningitis, acting as controls. The participants won't know which of the two they have received.
The experimental vaccine should stimulate the disease fighting capability to recognize and respond to SARS-CoV-2’s spike protein, that allows it to enter and infect healthy cells.
Yesterday, the first two volunteers received the inoculation. Both of them are scientists who were keen to contribute for some reason to the efforts to fight the brand new coronavirus.
One of the volunteers, Edward O’Neill, Ph.D., who works in the department of oncology at the University of Oxford, has said within an interview that getting involved in the early stage of the clinical trial “just appears like the right move to make, to ensure that we are able to combat this disease just a little and overcome it faster.”
The other pioneering participant, Elisa Granato, Ph.D. - from the department of zoology at the university - has expressed an identical sentiment, saying, “I’m a scientist, so of course I would like to try and support science […], and since I don’t study viruses, I felt a little useless these days, so I felt this [taking part in the trial] is an extremely easy method for me to support the cause.”
A few days after getting the shot, Granato sent a public message reassuring everyone that she was successful.
Prof. Sarah Gilbert, who is from the Jenner Institute for Vaccine Research in Oxford and spearheaded the study resulting in this trial, has said that she trusts that the vaccine will be a successful endeavor:
“Personally, I have a high degree of confidence in this vaccine.”
The researchers expect that it will require 2-6 months to verify if the vaccine is safe and working because they hope that it will.
Source: www.medicalnewstoday.com
