US Begins First Human Trial of Coronavirus Vaccine

Trump orders energy dept to fill oil reserves to top

The first human trial to evaluate a candidate vaccine against coronavirus disease 2019 has begun in Seattle, US health officials said on Monday.

“The open-label trial will enrol 45 healthy adult volunteers ages 18 to 55 years over approximately 6 weeks,” the US National Institutes of Health said in a statement.

“The first participant received the investigational vaccine today.”

But the candidate would still need to progress through various more stages, known as phases, to prove it works and is safe.

US officials have estimated it may take a year to 18 months before it becomes available — if everything goes to plan.

The vaccine is called mRNA1273 and was developed by NIH scientists and collaborators at biotechnology company Moderna, which is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Funding was also provided by the Oslo-based Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI).

“Finding a safe and effective vaccine to prevent infection with SARS-CoV-2 is an urgent public health priority,” said Anthony Fauci, head of infectious diseases at the NIH.

“This Phase 1 study, launched in record speed, is an important first step toward achieving that goal.”

Coronaviruses are spherical and have spikes protruding from their surface, giving them a crown-like appearance. The spike binds to human cells, allowing the virus to gain entry.

The Moderna candidate vaccine carries the genetic information of this spike in a substance called “messenger RNA.”

Injecting human tissue with the spike’s messenger RNA makes it grow inside the body, thereby eliciting an immune response without having actually infected a person with the full-blown virus.

Meanwhile, the US could begin purchasing US-produced crude oil for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in two weeks from now, and fill it in several months, an Energy Department source said on Monday.

President Donald Trump said on Friday that he had ordered the Energy Department to fill the reserve “to the top”.

The move was aimed at helping domestic energy producers suffering from the plunge in oil prices brought about by the spread of coronavirus and a price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia.

The Energy Department has said the reserve, which has a capacity of 713 million barrels, can take an additional 77 million barrels of crude.

It was unclear how the government would finance such a purchase.

The cost of 77 million barrels at Monday’s prices for WTI oil CLc1 of fewer than 30 dollars a barrel would be nearly 2.3 billion dollars.

Congress would likely have to pass a bill containing funding but it was uncertain how much money could be arranged through legislation.

Some lawmakers in the House of Representatives, which are controlled by Democrats, could seek measures to promote green energy as a compromise.

Still, the source was confident that things would move quickly.

“Based on discussions with industry we are confident that this can be filled within several months,” said the DOE source who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Trump, who is running for re-election in November, has been divided on the impact of low oil prices.

Last week he said in a tweet: “Good for the consumer, gasoline prices coming down!”

But the oil price drop could also push many domestic crude producers into bankruptcy.