Coronavirus: US volunteers to test first potential vaccine

The first human trial of a potential coronavirus vaccine is set to commence in the U.S. on Monday. A group of 45 healthy volunteers will be injected with a harmless genetic code copied from the coronavirus. It is worth noting that the shots will not cause Covid-19 in the volunteers as they do not contain the virus itself. This is a key difference between the Covid-19 trial vaccine and typical vaccines for viruses such as measles which are made from a weakened or killed virus. The volunteers will be given two jabs in total, into the upper arm, 28 days apart.

The vaccine trial which is taking place at the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute in Seattle is being funded by the National Institutes of Health. Health officials say it will take 12 to 18 months to fully validate any potential vaccine. Moderna Therapeutics is the biotechnology company behind the vaccine and they say a tested and tried process was used in making the vaccine.

"This vaccine uses pre-existing technology." said Dr John Tregoning, an expert in infectious diseases at Imperial College London, UK.

"It's been made to a very high standard, using things that we know are safe to use in people and those taking part in the trial will be very closely monitored.

"Yes, this is very fast - but it is a race against the virus, not against each other as scientists, and it's being done for the benefit of humanity."

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