LONDON (AP) — British researchers testing an experimental vaccine against the new coronavirus are moving into advanced studies and aim to immunize more than 10,000 people to determine if the shot works.
“It’s a huge gamble that could waste a lot of money if their choices fail and must be thrown away.”
This is positive news. The US should be ramping up its manufacturing capability to insure there are enough shots to go around as soon as possible if this or one of the other vaccine candidates proves successful. Instead, Trump is doing photo ops and the US government is dithering as usual.
One step on a long road to a working and safe vaccine. This is a long distance effort…not a sprint…but it’s good news as far as it goes.
Straight into Phase III…interesting development strategy.
As far as not clearing the virus from the upper respiratory tract, that is disappointing. But if the vaccine substantially reduces the lower respiratory infections (i.e., pneumonias), that qualifies as a win in my book.
So it turns the vaccined into Typhoid Marys? They are immune themselves, but still capable of spreading infection?
That is not clear at this point.
They are certainly not transmitters by virtue of the vaccine itself: it isn’t a corona virus. It is a cold virus that expresses the spike protein.
It’s also not clear at this point that vaccinated people will never clear the virus from the upper respiratory tract.
Worst case, it’s a possible prophylactic treatment for SARS-CoV-2 infected individuals to prevent pneumonia.