COVID-19 vaccine: first human test results obtained

Tests of the first experimental vaccine againstCOVID-19, tested in humans, has shown promising results. And this is very good news, given the current situation with the spread of the new coronavirus - at the time of this writing, there are almost five million people infected in the world, and the disease claimed the lives of more than 300,000 people. The SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, which causes COVID-19, changed the world beyond recognition in a matter of months. Now, a simple trip to the store, like any way out of the house, is a real quest, because you need to wash your hands, put on a mask, glasses, gloves and correctly remove and dispose of all this when you return home. People around the world today are waiting for the vaccine to live again without fear for their loved ones and for themselves. We tell what is known about the new experimental vaccine.

All of us today have to hope that the vaccine against COVID-19 will be created very soon.

According to various estimates, the vaccine manufacturing process may take from 12 to 18 months.

Coronavirus vaccine - what you need to know?

Ever since the world organizationHealth (WHO) has announced a pandemic of the new coronavirus, more than two months have passed. All this time, scientists around the world have been working on vaccine manufacturing. Needless to say, vaccine work itself is a daunting task. So, researchers are still working on a vaccine against relatives of COVID-19SARS viruses (severe acute respiratorysyndrome, SARS) and MERS (Middle East respiratory syndrome), the outbreak of which occurred in 2003 and 2006, respectively. But this has its advantages at the same time - many researchers have focused on developing a vaccine against COVID-19, based on existing data (as a result of studying outbreaks of SARS and MERS).

I note that the natural host of coronavirusstill not installed, and the most likely candidates are bats. For the reasons why these bats carry a lot of dangerous diseases, read the article by my colleague Daria Yeletskaya.

Among the countries that have announced work oncoronavirus vaccine Germany, Russia, USA, China and others. So, according to scientists from the Gamalei National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology, in our country, human vaccine testing will begin in about a month, and the vaccine will be ready in August. Of course, this is a favorable forecast for the development of events, but the researchers themselves (like you and me) hope that everything goes according to plan.

In more detail about how the work on the vaccine is going on in different countries I wrote in this article.

It turns out that in China, 500 people received an experimental vaccine. We hope the results will be good!

What is known about the first vaccine against COVID-19

As the Spanish El Pais writes, the firstan experimental vaccine against COVID-19, developed by American scientists in record time, has been successfully tested in humans. After the first test, the researchers rated the vaccine as "safe and well-tolerated in general." The subjects were 45 healthy volunteers. Antibodies to coronavirus were found in eight of them.

The prototype spawned in the first eight participantslevels of neutralizing antibodies - the body's defenses that bind to the virus and block its ability to infect cells - are similar to antibodies found in the blood of patients who defeated the disease.

Scientists write in the official press release of the study.

SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus in the context looks like this

Moderna representatives also said their experimental vaccine provided “complete protection” against virus propagation in the lungs of vaccinated and then infected laboratory mice. The studies were conducted in collaboration with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the United States. After these first animal tests and 45Of the subjects, US authorities authorized a second-stage trial with 600 healthy volunteers. If all goes well, in June the company intends to begin the third phase - testing the vaccine in thousands of subjects to demonstrate its safety and effectiveness.

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As noted in the WHO, to date, 118 are registered in the list of experimental vaccines against SARS-CoV-2. Eight of them are already being tested in humans. However, experts warn that the promising preliminary results of some of them do not guarantee their effectiveness or safety.

According to Technical Director of Modern,Spanish pharmacist Juan Andres, who earlier in March warned that one vaccine is not enough to defeat COVID-19. The question with vaccines, especially during a pandemic, is how many doses can be delivered. How many people will get the vaccine? Who will decide this and how? Let me remind you that this problem was perfectly illustrated in the Soderberg film "Infection": the lottery became the solution to the problem of the distribution of vaccines in the film.

Photo taken during the first trials of the vaccine company Moderna (USA)

Do you think something like this is possible in the real world? The answer can be shared with the participants of our Telegram chat, as well as in the comments to this article.

In the meantime, we are with you (I really hope so)We observe social distance and WHO recommendations; active work on the coronavirus vaccine continues. So we must wish good luck to scientists and take care of ourselves and our loved ones. Let's not forget that every day thousands of doctors risk their lives in the “red zones” of hospitals across the country and support them - we’ll sit at home for a little more.