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A Covid-19 vaccine could soon be at hand as British scientists start the largest human trial in the world.
Up to 400 people have volunteered for the project, which is led by the University of Oxford and will test four drugs.
They include the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine, an anti-inflammatory drug, a steroid, and an antiretroviral drug that is normally used to treat HIV.
The recovery test, covering 150 UK hospitals, will start in a few days and end in August.
Similar trials underway in the United States and Europe have a few hundred patients in total.
Key government adviser Sir John Bell, who is part of our vaccine working group, said: “If we can see evidence of a strong immune response in mid to late May, then I think the game is on.
“Then, of course, there is the big problem of how billions of doses are manufactured on a large scale.”
Professor Peter Horby, another vaccine expert, added: “The UK is leading the global fight against the pandemic.
(Image: Getty)
“We have set up this test in record time. It is the largest trial in the world and, realistically, by June or July we will have a very clear signal on whether the drugs are effective.”
Pharmaceutical companies and universities around the world are competing to develop a Covid-19 vaccine.
There are now at least 62 efforts underway, according to the World Health Organization.
(Image: Getty)
But despite hope for a breakthrough, Professor Will Irving, a virologist at the University of Nottingham, warned: “Until you try a vaccine, you don’t know if it will work or not.”
“A vaccine can only be shown to work through appropriate clinical trials. There is a history of vaccine trials that show absolutely no effect.”
“There are even some historical trials where the vaccine did not prevent the disease, it actually made it worse.”
(Image: PA)
“With the best of intentions, you don’t know until you put it to the test. At a time of an epidemic like this, you could do it reasonably quickly.”
And health chiefs have also warned that it will be difficult to eliminate Covid-19 entirely.
Dr. Chris Smith, clinical virologist consultant at the University of Cambridge, said: “Most people are of the opinion, given how well optimized this new coronavirus is, it has a high chance of becoming another circulating coronavirus and causing seasonal infections, or in rare cases more severe outbreaks.
“Because by the time that happens, the vast majority of us will have been immune to it, either because a vaccine was invented or because we have naturally become infected with it.”
Dr. David Nabarro, a WHO Covid-19 envoy, said this week that people will have to get used to a “new reality” of always wearing a mask as the virus will “stalk the human race” for some time.
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