In the global race for a COVID-19 vaccine, the Oxford vaccine seems to be in the lead.
On Monday, 20 June, Richard Horton, the editor of the science journal The Lancet, tweeted a simple tweet that created a frenzy in the medical community,
The results from Phase 1 of the vaccine candidate are expected to be published in The Lancet shortly.
Globally, the World Health Organisation (WHO) is monitoring over 145 vaccines that are in several stages of clinical research. Experts estimate it could take anywhere from 12-18 months to get results, although the scientists from the Jenner Institute at Oxford had famously said they would have a vaccine ready by September 2020.
However, in end May, Professor Adrian Hill, director of the university's Jenner Institute did add that there could be a 50 per cent chance that there would be no result at all.
Still, researchers, scientists and the general public are all anticipating the results.
On the Indian front, the indigenous vaccine candidate, Covaxin will begin Phase 1 of its human trials at New Delhi's All India Institute of Medical Sciences, today, 20 July.
AIIMS Director Dr Randeep Guleria told ANI that they will start trials on healthy people aged 18-55 who have no other co-morbidities. 375 people have been selected for this phase. For Phase 2, they will recruit 750 people between the ages of 12-65.
The overall number of global COVID-19 cases has increased to over 14.4 million, while the deaths have topped to more than 605,000, according to the Johns Hopkins University.
(With inputs from ANI)
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