Eureka: The vaccine is here to wipe out Covid-19

25 Jun 2020

At last Prof. Robin Shattock, the scientist from Imperial College London will be able to speak aloud ‘Eureka’. A vaccine to wipe out Covid-19 is born. If it works the vaccine will provide effective protection against the disease and no wonder it could revolutionize how the world responds to the disease in the future.

Traditionally, vaccines are formulated out of the weakened or modified form of virus, or parts of it, but this vaccine is based on a new treatment that uses synthetic strands of genetic code, RNA, which mimic the virus. If the vaccine is injected into the muscle, the RNA will self-amplifies to generate its copies. Afterward, it will instruct the cells to make copies of a spike protein found on the outside of the virus, Covid-19.

This self-amplifying and copying of the RNA will enable the immune system to recognize and fight the virus without having to develop the Covid-19. The investigative team claims that it requires only a nominal amount of RNA to produce substantial doses. The Imperial team hopes the vaccine could be distributed in the UK and overseas from early 2021.

Earlier tests have been carried out in animals and the team suggested that the vaccine is safe and triggered an effective immune response. Now, human trials have started. Volunteers have begun being immunized with this new vaccine. About 300 people will have the vaccine over the coming weeks. There are around 120 vaccine programs are progressing all over the world. Experts say that most of these will never get beyond the research laboratories. Now it is known that about 13 have reached clinical trials. Five trials going on in China, three in the United States, two in the UK, one in Australia, Germany, and Russia. Evidently there are no vaccine races but a racing mission to protect the world from the deadly virus, Covid-19. The world has anxiously opened its eyes and ears to see and hear the good news from the sacred volunteers.