Moment First Coronavirus Vaccine Volunteers Are Injected For Human Trials

Pictures have been released of the first volunteers to be injected with the coronavirus vaccine in the UK's human trials.

Researchers administered the first dose yesterday (23 April) while the other person was given a meningitis vaccine so that the two could be compared. Only the doctors will know which patient was administered with the Covid-19 vaccine.

The Oxford Vaccine Group plans to repeat the process with six more participants on Saturday (25 April).

The first two volunteers were microbiologist Elisa Granato and cancer researcher Edward O'Neill, who both said they wanted to assist in what could be a groundbreaking development.

Mr O'Neill said: "It seems like the right thing to do to ensure that we can, you know, combat this disease and get over it a lot faster."

When he was asked whether his family knew what he was doing, he said: "My wife is fully aware, my son just thought that daddy's going to work today and I guess I am going to work for a different thing than normal."

Sarah Gilbert, who is professor of vaccinology at the Jenner Institute and led the pre-clinical research, saying she is '80 percent confident' the vaccine will work.

She said: "Personally I have a high degree of confidence in this vaccine.

"Of course, we have to test it and get data from humans. We have to demonstrate it actually works and stops people getting infected with coronavirus before using the vaccine in the wider population."

Professor Andrew Pollard, director of the Oxford Vaccine Group - which is leading the trial - said: "We're chasing the end of this current epidemic wave.

"If we don't catch that, we won't be able to tell whether the vaccine works in the next few months. But we do expect that there will be more cases in the future because this virus hasn't gone away."