Coronavirus Vaccine Testing Shows Optimistic Results

Coronavirus Vaccine Testing Shows Optimistic Results
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Encouraging early results from clinical trials have raised hopes for an effective coronavirus vaccine.

Studies in the US and UK suggest several experimental vaccines produce a good immune response in volunteers without serious side-effects.

Nearly two dozen coronavirus vaccines are in clinical trials while another 140 are in early development.

But some scientists are calling for volunteers to be exposed to the virus to accelerate research.

Nobel laureates are among those who say it would make it easier to see if those who had received a vaccine were protected.

They signed an open letter to the head of the US National Institutes of Health, saying these "challenge trials" could accelerate vaccine development.

The race to create a coronavirus vaccine is certainly accelerating.

Early results from two trials in the US, run by the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and biotech company Moderna, suggest both their vaccines both produce a good immune response in volunteers.

The same is expected when data is released next week from Oxford University. Its vaccine is designed to stimulate two parts of the immune system - producing neutralising antibodies and T-cells - both of which can play a key in preventing viral infection.

It would be surprising and hugely disappointing if these leading vaccine candidates did not produce a good immune system response, given early lab and animal data.

But it doesn't tell us whether any of them works in the real world.

And do they prevent infection completely, or simply stop people from falling ill but allow them to pass the virus on?

Some indication may come in the autumn but it could be well into next year before definitive results are known.