Coronavirus vaccine: How are trials done, safe for humans?
Coronavirus vaccine: How are trials done, safe for humans?
The first corona vaccine trial for people across Europe was launched in Oxford, and the first two of over 800 volunteers were vaccinated.
Half of the volunteers will receive a Covid-19 corona vaccine and the other half will be vaccinated, which protects them from meningitis, but does not affect the coronavirus.
The key to the experiment is this: Volunteers will not know which vaccine has been given to them. Only doctors will know this.
The vaccine was produced by a group of scientists from Oxford University in a three-month study period.
In what method was the vaccine produced?
There are many known methods of producing vaccines.
This vaccine was prepared by weakening a normal and harmless flu virus (adenovirus) seen in chimpanzees and replacing it so that it cannot develop in the human body. Scientists have inserted the gene of proteins from the surface of the coronavirus into this virus.
It is hoped that as these proteins begin to multiply, the human body will begin to produce antibodies and warrior cells, and the vaccine will have a protective effect against coronavirus in this way.
The team at Oxford previously produced vaccines against Mers, another coronavirus species, with promising results in human trials with this vaccine.
How will it be understood that it works?
The research team will be able to find out if the Covid-19 vaccine is working by monitoring how many people from two groups of hundreds of people who received two different types of vaccine in the coming months were caught with coronavirus. There is no other way.
But if the epidemic loses its pace in the UK, scientists may not have enough data to measure the success of the vaccine.
"We are trying to catch the tip of this epidemic wave. If we do not catch it, we will not be able to see if the vaccine has worked, but we will not be able to understand the outbreak for a while," said Professor Andrew Pollard, director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, who led the study.
Vaccine researchers are prioritizing the involvement of local health workers who are more likely to be exposed to the virus on human trials.
In addition, a larger trial will start in the coming months, involving 5,000 volunteers and without age limit.
The immune system of the elderly shows a weaker resistance to the vaccine than other people. Researchers are also evaluating whether to apply two separate doses according to age.
The Oxford team is also working with researchers in Kenya, where the rate of spread of the disease is growing, on the possibility of conducting a vaccine trial there.
In fact, many vaccines are made by giving the body a weakened virus that causes disease. In this way, a much more direct and faster result could be obtained.
But for coronavirus, there is a simple reason why this path has not been tried: Covid-19 has no known effective treatment yet. That's why giving people this virus is ethically problematic as it can endanger their lives.
Still, Professor Pollard says that such a vaccine may be produced in the future:
Is vaccine trial safe?
Subjects who volunteer for the vaccine will be carefully monitored in the coming months.
They were told that their arms may hurt a few days after the vaccination and that the vaccine may cause headaches or fever.
It is also said that, theoretically, the virus is likely to cause more severe consequences and become a serious coronavirus case.
This kind of thing happened in the first vaccine trials on animals against Sars virus.
But the team at Oxford says the chances of the vaccine causing such results are very, very low, and the experiments on animals have been positive.
The team hopes that if it proves successful, around 1 million doses of vaccine can be produced by September, and then move on to much larger production.
Who will be the vaccine priority?
Oxford and Imperial teams received over 40 million pounds of public funding from the government for these investigations.
Health Minister Matt Hancock praised both groups of researchers and said he would mobilize all of England's opportunities to develop the vaccine.
Professor Chris Whitty, a chief health officer from the science delegation advising the government in the UK, has previously said that there is no chance that a vaccine or a drug to treat Covid-19 will be used in the next year.
Half of the volunteers will receive a Covid-19 corona vaccine and the other half will be vaccinated, which protects them from meningitis, but does not affect the coronavirus.
The key to the experiment is this: Volunteers will not know which vaccine has been given to them. Only doctors will know this.
The vaccine was produced by a group of scientists from Oxford University in a three-month study period.
In what method was the vaccine produced?
There are many known methods of producing vaccines.
This vaccine was prepared by weakening a normal and harmless flu virus (adenovirus) seen in chimpanzees and replacing it so that it cannot develop in the human body. Scientists have inserted the gene of proteins from the surface of the coronavirus into this virus.
It is hoped that as these proteins begin to multiply, the human body will begin to produce antibodies and warrior cells, and the vaccine will have a protective effect against coronavirus in this way.
The team at Oxford previously produced vaccines against Mers, another coronavirus species, with promising results in human trials with this vaccine.
How will it be understood that it works?
The research team will be able to find out if the Covid-19 vaccine is working by monitoring how many people from two groups of hundreds of people who received two different types of vaccine in the coming months were caught with coronavirus. There is no other way.
But if the epidemic loses its pace in the UK, scientists may not have enough data to measure the success of the vaccine.
"We are trying to catch the tip of this epidemic wave. If we do not catch it, we will not be able to see if the vaccine has worked, but we will not be able to understand the outbreak for a while," said Professor Andrew Pollard, director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, who led the study.
Vaccine researchers are prioritizing the involvement of local health workers who are more likely to be exposed to the virus on human trials.
In addition, a larger trial will start in the coming months, involving 5,000 volunteers and without age limit.
The immune system of the elderly shows a weaker resistance to the vaccine than other people. Researchers are also evaluating whether to apply two separate doses according to age.
The Oxford team is also working with researchers in Kenya, where the rate of spread of the disease is growing, on the possibility of conducting a vaccine trial there.
In fact, many vaccines are made by giving the body a weakened virus that causes disease. In this way, a much more direct and faster result could be obtained.
But for coronavirus, there is a simple reason why this path has not been tried: Covid-19 has no known effective treatment yet. That's why giving people this virus is ethically problematic as it can endanger their lives.
Still, Professor Pollard says that such a vaccine may be produced in the future:
Is vaccine trial safe?
Subjects who volunteer for the vaccine will be carefully monitored in the coming months.
They were told that their arms may hurt a few days after the vaccination and that the vaccine may cause headaches or fever.
It is also said that, theoretically, the virus is likely to cause more severe consequences and become a serious coronavirus case.
This kind of thing happened in the first vaccine trials on animals against Sars virus.
But the team at Oxford says the chances of the vaccine causing such results are very, very low, and the experiments on animals have been positive.
The team hopes that if it proves successful, around 1 million doses of vaccine can be produced by September, and then move on to much larger production.
Who will be the vaccine priority?
Oxford and Imperial teams received over 40 million pounds of public funding from the government for these investigations.
Health Minister Matt Hancock praised both groups of researchers and said he would mobilize all of England's opportunities to develop the vaccine.
Professor Chris Whitty, a chief health officer from the science delegation advising the government in the UK, has previously said that there is no chance that a vaccine or a drug to treat Covid-19 will be used in the next year.
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