All section Close
Oxford University Starts COVID-19 Vaccine Trials, First Volunteer Injected
Writer: Palak Agrawal
Palak a journalism graduate believes in simplifying the complicated and writing about the extraordinary lives of ordinary people. She calls herself a " hodophile" or in layman words- a person who loves to travel.
26 April 2020 9:08 AM GMT | Updated 26 April 2020 12:10 PM GMT
Editor : Prateek Gautam |
A free soul who believes that journalism, apart from politics, should stand for social cause and the environment.
Creatives : Abhishek M |
" An engineer by profession, Abhishek is the creative producer of the team, graphic designing is his passion and travelling his get away. In more ways than one, he makes the content visually appealing."
The aim is to quicken the process and make the vaccines available to the residents of UK by September.
Microbiologist Elisa Granato has become the first human to be injected for the human trial phase of a potential vaccine of COVID-19 by a group of scientists at the University of Oxford, UK.
The ground-breaking vaccine is set to be tried on around 800 volunteers in the first phase.
The Oxford team, led by Professor Sarah Gilbert will be testing 'ChAdOx1 nCoV-19' vaccine, made from a virus (ChAdOx1), which is a weakened version of a common cold virus (adenovirus) that causes infections in chimpanzees, that has been genetically changed so that it is impossible for it to grow in humans. It is modified to include the spike or 'S' protein on the surface of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
According to a LiveMint report, the professor is quite confident about the success of the antidote and believes that it has an 80% success rate.
It will be tested on the volunteers aged in the range 18-55. The aim is to quicken the process and make the vaccines available to the residents of UK by September.
Reportedly, the UK government has provided the institution with sufficient funds to carry out the process.
It has given out 20 million pounds to the University of Oxford and 22 million pounds to The Imperial College London, as reported by Business Standard.
The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, UK, Matt Hancock while speaking at the Downing Street press conference on 21st April, said, "I can announce that the vaccine from the Oxford project will be trialled in people from this Thursday, reported Huffington Post.
"In normal times, reaching this stage would take years and I'm very proud of the work taken so far. At the same time, we will invest in manufacturing capability so that, if either of these vaccines safely work, we can make it available for the British people as soon as humanely possible."
Keeping in mind the incessant increment in the death toll in the UK, the testing was thereafter, given a green flag.
Professor Robin Shattock, who leads Imperial College London's effort, said if either project provides the "right signal in terms of safety and efficacy", a vaccine could be available for the UK's front-line workers and the most vulnerable before the end of the year.
With more than 2.7 million people affected worldwide, the entire world now hopes for the success of COVID-19 vaccine.
Also Read: Indian Businesses Will Revive In Sept If All Goes Well: Sundaram Finance
Must Reads
We are an independent and public-spirited digital media platform for Indian millennials. We report news and issues that matter as well as give you the opportunity to take action.
