Potential Coronavirus Vaccine To Go For Initial Trials Today In US, To Check For Any Side Effects First

Amid the growing concerns regarding the Novel Coronavirus pandemic, a clinical trial to check a vaccine designed to fight and cure the CoVid-19 is going to take place on Monday (16 March) in the United States, News18 reported.

Attributing a US government official who did not wish to be named, the report said that the first participant for the trial will be given experimental vaccine on Monday. The trial, however, has not yet been announced officially.

Being funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the official said the trial was being conducted at the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute in Seattle.

This would be the primary phase of testings where as many as 45 young and healthy volunteers would be injected different doses of shots of the vaccine co-developed by NIH and Moderna Inc.

As per the report, the main aim of this test is to see if the vaccine causes no side effects, so that it could be taken for further testings. The participants will also not get infected with the CoVid-19 as the vaccine shots do not carry the virus itself.

As several research centres across the world have been trying to create a vaccine, health experts have asserted it will take about a year to 18 months in completing all the tests and validate any potential vaccine.

The virus so far has killed more than 6,400 people worldwide, while infecting over 1,50,000 people. After China, countries like Italy and Iran have been worst hit by the CoVid-19.

And as there is no direct cure to the disease yet, various researchers have been eyeing at temporary vaccines, mainly with the ability to increase a person’s immunity and protect their health for as long as a proper vaccine is developed.