London: Amid all the gloom across the world due to the pandemic coronavirus, there is some hope and good news too. A professor at the Oxford University has said that the vaccine with which COVID-19 patients can be treated could be ready as early as September this year. Professor Sarah Gilbert who deals with vaccinology have said that she is 80 per cent sure, her team will be ready with the vaccine to counter COVID-19.
Professor Sarah Gilbert’s team at Oxford University is working like many other researchers and scientists across the world to find out the right vaccine for the dreaded virus. COVID-19 has so far killed over a million people across the world and the numbers are rising.
Professor Gilbert has said that human trials are set to take place within the next fortnight. She has also said that she is working 24×7 to get the vaccine rushed through.
“I think there’s a high chance that it will work based on other things that we have done with this type of vaccine,” Professor Gilbert was was quoted as saying by ‘The Times’ here. “It’s not just a hunch and as every week goes by we have more data to look at. I would go for 80 per cent that the vaccine is on the way, that’s my personal view,” added Professor Gilbert.
However, the professor was quick to that having something ready by the autumn is ‘just about possible if everything goes perfectly’, but warned that ‘nobody can promise it’s going to work’.
The lockdown in the United Kingdom (UK) means it will be more difficult to test the vaccine, as human contact is low. So researchers will have to conduct trials somewhere with a higher rate of transmission, to get a quicker result. Earlier in the week, researchers at Southampton University had said that they had found out that the COVID-19 virus has ‘low shielding’, meaning a vaccine could be easier to develop.
The UK is at the forefront of vaccine funding, and has so far pumped £210mn into an international fund last month – the largest contribution at the time for a vaccine.
But then many other researchers do not share the same optimism shown by Professor Gilbert and her team at Oxford University. They have said that it may take more than a year to come up with the right vaccine to counter coronavirus.
Agencies
