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Human Trials For Coronavirus Vaccine Set To Take Place In US Today

Human Trials For Coronavirus Vaccine Set To Take Place In US Today

The trial will be used to test for side effects

Claire Reid

Claire Reid

A trial to test a coronavirus vaccine on humans will take place this week, a US official has said.

The trial, which is funded by the National Institutes of Health, will use its first human participant today [Monday 16 March] to test the vaccine for any side-effects.

PA
PA

However, they will not be infected with the virus beforehand, according to the Independent.

The trial will involve 45 healthy volunteers and will be held at the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute in Seattle.

Experts have warned that even if the tests go well it will most likely be more than a year until we have a fully ready-to-use vaccine.

The US isn't the only country working hard to get a vaccine for the potentially deadly Covid-19.

Researchers in the UK have announced their vaccine could be going through human trials in June.

Researchers from Imperial College London said the vaccine had had successful trials in mice.

Dr Paul McKay told the Daily Express: "We've made a vaccine and already tested it in mice. I've got results from a month after I injected those, and the vaccine works really, really well.

"The next thing is that we need the Government to fund us to do human clinical trials. The responses in the mice were huge so I really can't see that it would be a poor response in people."

PA

Dr McKay told the newspaper the team, led by Mucosal Infection and Immunity head Dr Robin Shattock, had applied for more funding to help get the vaccine up and running.

"If we get the funding for the human clinical trials, we will put it into people by June," he said.

"If British scientists here develop a vaccine it would be great if the Government supported it."

Similarly, the team have said it will likely be a year or more before it would be available.

It's okay to not panic. LADbible and UNILAD's aim with our campaign, Cutting Through, is to provide our community with facts and stories from the people who are either qualified to comment or have experienced first-hand the situation we're facing. For more information from the World Health Organisation on Coronavirus, click here.

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: World News, coronavirus