I wonder how far we are from finding a vaccination to combat COVI-19? Let me start by clearly stating that I am no doctor so all I say I have gleaned from talking to those that are and, right now, from the Internet. A couple of weeks ago I was conned into believing some advice on Coronavirus was pucka but it was not. I had to apologise. Thus, my caution today.
Contagions like Coronavirus have been evident for many years – stretching back through human history. The common cold is from the Coronavirus family as was Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) which appeared in 2002-2003 and reportedly killed 774 people as well as infecting 8,098 between November 2002 and July 2003. It seems to have been far less deadly than COVID-19. The disease first appeared in November 2002 in the Guangdong province of Southern China.
Another viral respiratory disease in the coronavirus family caused by a novel coronavirus is known as MERS. MERS-CoV has caused nearly 2,500 cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome since its discovery in 2012, with fatalities in approximately 35% of cases. COVID-19, SARS and MERS-CoV all attack the lungs.
There is currently no specific treatment for coronavirus. Antibiotics do not help, as they do not work against viruses. The treatments being used try to relieve the symptoms and give pain relief whilst the body itself fights the illness. This is why people with low immunities, such as underlying medical conditions, seem so much more at risk. Obviously, people with Coronavirus must stay in isolation away from other people until they have recovered.
Developing a new vaccine can takes years, sometimes decades. However international research facilities all around the World are trying to come up with a vaccine for the new Coronavirus in record time.
So how is the race to develop a Coronavirus going? Here I declare my source of information. The BBC put a report about this on-line with its reporter visiting a research laboratory called Inovio in San Diego, California on 2 April.
The reporter interviewed Dr Kate Broderick, Inovio’s Head of Research and Development. Dr Broderick stated that after the Chinese released the DNA sequence of COVID-19 by putting it on-line, they set to work immediately. She actually said that very quickly after that a trial vaccine was designed and put into manufacture. The so-called plasmid was then added to bacteria and incubators. Thereafter the DNA from the bacteria that has grown was purified which she said would give a pure product which can then be tested in pre-clinical testing. Then the final product will be available for human testing. Inovio believes that it should have that by what she said was ‘the early summer’.
Meanwhile at home our research laboratories are working full tilt on this matter too. The Metro (on-line) reported last Saturday that Sarah Gilbert, Professor of Vaccinology at Oxford University, has said she is 80 per cent confident that the Coronavirus vaccine her team were working on would be working by September if, of course, everything goes to plan.
Meanwhile, Health Secretary Matt Hancock says the Government are already making preparations in the event that such a vaccine is available to the public. He told SKY News:
“I am engaged in all of that and I know quite a lot about the Oxford project and it is really great to see some hope, especially on the front page of the newspapers…. we will put all the resources into getting a vaccine because of the massive benefits we’d have if we had a vaccine … then we can manufacture enough here to be able to get it to everybody as quickly as possible.”
Let us just hope that this happens. All that we can be certain of is that a huge race is now taking place to get a vaccine to protect us all and the best medical scientific minds in the World are on the case.