First vaccine could be ready by October

Helen Clark named on global response review panel as Victoria and Texas infection trends worsen WHO concedes Airborne spread possible

England’s Oxford University is edging ahead in the race to produce a successful Covid-19 vaccine after the World Health Organisation’s chief scientist declared their vaccine the “leading candidate”.

Already in three late-stage trials, we could know by the end of August whether or not Oxford’s vaccine is effective in protecting people from coronavirus — which has infected more than 12 million people around the world and killed at least 553,438.

According to The Economist, just one successful trial would allow a regulator to approve the vaccine for emergency use — meaning it could be available to those considered “high risk” in October.

British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, which is building an international supply chain to ensure the vaccine is available “widely and rapidly”, thinks full approval, which would require results from multiple trials, could come early next year.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has called the race to develop a vaccine “the most urgent shared endeavour of our lifetimes”.

Based on drugs that have proven successful against similar viruses, the Oxford vaccine team — led by Professor Sarah Gilbert — has moved quickly into the large-scale human trial phase.

Chair of the UK vaccine taskforce, Kate Bingham, said they were a long way ahead of the field.

“The Oxford study will have likely vaccinated all their efficacy subjects before any of the other vaccines actually start their big efficacy trials,” she told British MPs.

“So that just gives you a scale of how ahead they are versus the other companies.”

Two billion doses of the vaccine have already been ordered, AstraZeneca said, each costing about the same as a cup of coffee.

Pascal Soriot, who works for AstraZeneca, said they think their vaccine is likely to protect against Covid-19 for about a year.

“If all goes well, we will have the results of the clinical trials in August-September. We are manufacturing a parallel. We will be ready to deliver from October if all goes well,” he said.

The positive vaccine news comes

The World Health Organisation has acknowledged the possibility that Covid-19 might be spread in the air under certain conditions — after more than 200 scientists urged the agency to do so.

In an open letter published this week in a journal, two scientists from Australia and the US wrote that studies have shown “beyond any reasonable doubt that viruses are released during exhalation, talking and coughing in microdroplets small enough to remain aloft in the air”.

as former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark and former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf were announced as joint leaders of a WHO panel into the source and response to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response will conduct the review into the coronavirus pandemic that has swept the world.

The WHO agreed to conduct an inquiry in May after the move was initially

The researchers, along with more than 200 others, appealed for national and international authorities, including WHO, to adopt more stringent protective measures.

WHO has long dismissed the possibility that the coronavirus is spread in the air except for certain risky medical procedures.

In a change to its previous thinking, WHO noted that studies evaluating Covid-19 outbreaks in restaurants, choir practices and fitness classes suggested the virus

proposed by Australia, tabled by the European Union and overwhelmingly backed by member states, including China at the World Health Assembly.

In Australia, the state of Victoria has recorded a new record daily infection high. Yesterday’s 288 new infections was the biggest daily increase anywhere in Australia since the pandemic started.

The state’s total is at 3397, with active Covid-19 cases surging past 1000, might have been spread in the air.

Airborne spread “particularly in specific indoor locations, such as crowded and inadequately ventilated spaces over a prolonged period of time with infected persons cannot be ruled out,” WHO said.

Still, officials also pointed out that other modes of transmission — like contaminated surfaces or close contacts between people in such indoor environments — might also have explained the disease’s spread.

Premier Daniel Andrews said.

The worst 24-hour period before this was when 212 new cases were recorded in New South Wales at the start of the pandemic.

Of Victoria’s 288 cases, 26 are linked to known outbreaks and 262 are under investigation. A total of 47 Victorians are in hospital and 12 remain in intensive care.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the situation in Victoria was “very concerning”.

“Victoria is continuing to ask for help and they will be getting help,” he said.

In the United States, worsening coronavirus trends in Texas again set another grim milestone yesterday as the state reported more than 100 deaths in a single day for the first time, making this the deadliest week of the pandemic in what has rapidly become one of America’s virus hot zones.

In addition to 105 new deaths, Texas also reported a new high for hospitalisations for the 10th consecutive day and the rolling rate of positive tests inched closer to nearly 16 per cent — the highest in the pandemic yet.

“I gotta tell you, I think the numbers are going to look worse as we go into next week,” Republican Governor Greg Abbott said.

The bleak numbers, and uncertainty over when a reversal might come, has hospitals across Texas amplifying calls for more staff and scrambling to make room for new Covid-19 patients filling beds.

“We really needed a 1000-bed field hospital from the federal government yesterday,” said Wesley Robinson, the assistant chief nursing officer of the South Texas Health System. news.com.au, AP