Oxford University’s Scientists See Promising Results in COVID-19 Vaccine Trials
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U.K. scientists are optimistic that a coronavirus vaccine will come by the end of the year, based off of the successful trial run with Oxford’s Covid-19 jab.
According to Sam Blanchard with Daily Mail U.K., Oxford University’s experimental jab, another term for injection, proved to be safe within the group of 35 people that received the vaccine. The injection showed a boosted immune response in the participants that lasted at least 56 days. The health and science correspondent for BBC, James Gallagher, stated that the vaccine is made from a “genetically engineered virus that causes the common cold in chimpanzees.” Scientists modified it so that it doesn’t cause infections in people.
The researchers who worked on the vaccine say that if the tests keep going according to plan, there might be a vaccine available by December. After Trump withdrew from WHO, and recently banned hospitals from reporting cases to the CDC, the experimental jabs seem as if they’re the only way the coronavirus will be controlled in the U.S.
The vaccine trials are set to reach the U.S. in August. CBS News writer, Haley Ott, mentioned that a Phase III human trial of the Oxford vaccine involving some 30,000 people will begin in the United States in August.”
30,000 is still a significantly smaller amount than the U.S. population and those that have COVID-19 in the country. However, if most of the participants react positively to the vaccine, that means we’ll be one step closer to ending this pandemic. According to Ott, the U.S. government also invested $1 billion in Oxford’s COVID-19 vaccine.
The U.K. hasn’t been the only country that’s working on a vaccine. There are also other vaccine trials happening in Brazil, South Africa, and China.
There’s been a lot of controversy surrounding the way politicians and government officials have been managing the virus around the world, but it’s encouraging news to everyone that vaccines are being tested and yielding positive results.