Coronavirus (COVID-19) Discussion Thread

[Trumpstyle]

curl-6 said:

SvennoJ said:

Production is already starting to ramp up, not waiting for the trials to finish

https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/astrazeneca-agrees-to-make-covid-19-vaccine-for-europe-1.4983059

AstraZeneca struck a deal Saturday to supply up to 400 million doses of an experimental COVID-19 vaccine to European Union countries. The Anglo-Swedish company recently completed similar agreements with Britain, the United States, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, a public-private-charitable partnership based in Norway, and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, another public-private partnership headquartered in Geneva, for 700 million doses. It plans to produce an additional 1 billion doses under a deal with the Serum Institute of India.

The vaccine was developed by Oxford University's Jenner Institute, working with the Oxford Vaccine Group. Testing of the experimental COVID-19 vaccine began in April with a study involving over 1,000 healthy volunteers in Britain aged 18 to 55. Another round of testing with 10,000 volunteers began last month.

Other companies, including Moderna and Sanofi, are racing to develop and produce a vaccine to protect against the new coronavirus, a step experts say will be crucial to allowing countries to ease public health lockdowns and restrictions on public life.

Excellent news all around.

We could possibly see the vaccine become available before the year is out, which would be a record turnaround for vaccine development, though that's understandable as there has never in the history of vaccines been such an enormous and urgent need to provide one as soon as possible.

It'll naturally roll out first to front line health workers and other at-risk groups most at risk, but as more becomes available, the general public should be able to get their shot not long afterwards.

We don't need a vaccine.