 |
| Covid-19 Vaccine |
Covid-19 Vaccine is Ready. Oxford University begins human trials, but
vaccine may not be available till next year. (To News Today)
It's hoped that the production of the Oxford trial vaccine
should start in September but before people could rejoice, Chief Medical
Officer of England, Chris Whitty warned that we might not be able to reap its
benefits this year.
The University of Oxford in the United Kingdom on Thursday
started the human trial of the novel corona-virus vaccine it has developed.
In its first phase, the trial will be carried out on healthy
adults between the age of 18 to 55. Once the safety is ascertained, it will be
extended to elder people including that of Black and Asian minority ethnic
(BAME) groups, including Indians.
According to the early April data from Intensive Care
National Audit and Research Centre, "Of 2,000 critically ill patients, 35
per cent were non-white. Asian people made up the largest ethnic group in all
the critical Covid-19 cases confirmed to ICNA up until April 3, with 272 of
cases, while 268 were Black."
British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin said,
"33 per cent of the current ITU admissions are those of BAME which is
above the national demographic of 14 per cent BAME population."
Honorary Vice President of British Medical Association Dr
Kailash Chand called this trial a "ray of hope," but said that it was
crucial for to include ethnic communities as the Black and Asia communities had
higher mortality rate from Covid-19 and they have different immune systems and
are likely to have a different response to the vaccine.
Corona-virus vaccine trial is being run by the Jenner
Institute of Oxford Vaccine Group. The team started work on this vaccine on
January 20 this year. The project is being led by Prof Sarah Gikbert, Prof
Andrew Pollard, Prof Teresa Lambe, Dr Sandy Douglas, Prof Catherine Green and
Prof Adrian Hill.
The clinical trial is being conducted in multiple centers in
collaboration with Prof Saul Faust at University Hospital Southampton NHS Trust
and Dr Katrina M Pollock at NIHR Imperial Clinical Research Facility, Imperial
College.
Imperial College London is also on its way to get into the
human trial phase possibly in June.
While Oxford University is using the common cold virus taken
from chimps to simulate the immune system, Imperial College is using the
genetic material from the virus itself to achieve the same result of helping the
immune system in a person to fight the virus. It’s is this very fight back by
the immune system that some people win, and others succumb too. The vaccine
intends to empower the immunity to fight back without getting sick.
The researchers are trying to achieve this by creating
"spike proteins" that are found outside the Covid-19 virus inside the
body. If the vaccine is successful in creating "spikes" then
antibodies can be created to attack the virus and do the same in the future.
Imperial College says, "Early findings have shown that
animals given the vaccine are able to produce neutralising antibodies against
the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. The team will now use the funding to develop
their vaccine further and test whether it can produce the same response in
humans, which could ultimately provide some protection against Covid-19."
It's hoped that the production of the Oxford trial vaccine
should start in September but before people could rejoice, Chief Medical
Officer of England, Chris Whitty warned that we might not be able to reap its
benefits this year.
It could take us to early next year and in the meantime, he
said, "Until we have the vaccine, we’re going to have to rely on other
social measures."
