The human clinical tests of the potential vaccine against covid-19 that the University of Oxford created had “promising results”. Also according to the UK press, these triggered the desired immune response.
The human tests, which since April involved about 1,000 healthy volunteers, have allowed scientists to conclude that the vaccine project generates antibodies and immune system cells that can fight the new coronavirus.
However, it remains to be demonstrated that this combined immune response is sufficient to prevent infection. Still, the researchers consider the effect achieved to be very positive.
The chairman of the Berkshire Research Ethics committee, which approved the tests at Oxford and continues to monitor the investigators’ work, said the team is “absolutely determined” to get a viable vaccine.
“Nobody can talk about deadlines. Things can go wrong, but the reality is that, together with a large pharmaceutical company [AstraZeneca], this vaccine could be available in September and that is what we are working towards ”, he said.
British Health Minister Matt Hancock indicated that researchers, including a team from Imperial College London, are trying to get the “best case” possible to put a vaccine into circulation later this year, but admitted that the most the vaccine is unlikely to arrive until 2021.
“We are also working on other potential vaccines worldwide, including in the United States of America, Germany and the Netherlands,” added Hancock.
The covid-19 pandemic has already claimed more than 579,000 deaths and infected more than 13.4 million people in 196 countries and territories.
In Portugal, 1,676 people of the 47,426 confirmed as infected died, according to the most recent bulletin from the Directorate-General for Health.
The disease is transmitted by a new coronavirus detected in late December in Wuhan, a city in central China.
After Europe succeeded China as the center of the pandemic, the American continent is now the one with the most cases and deaths.
