CORONAVIRUS Q&A

The Telegraph’s Global Health Security reporter Sarah Newey answered your questions on the race to develop a vaccine and treatments for Covid-19.

Mike Ball, via website

Q How realistic is a vaccine in the near future?

A In terms of when a vaccine will be ready, I think it will be at least a year, because it’s really important to do rigorous, large-scale efficacy and safety tests. You’re giving a vaccine to otherwise healthy people, so you need to make sure that it’s not going to make them ill. That takes time.

Coronaviruses mutate much more slowly, which means that once we have a good vaccine we won’t need to tinker with it as much. Work has also started on developing a vaccine for Sars, which shares between 80 and 90 per cent of its genetic material with Sars-cov-2 (hence the name of the new virus). That means scientists aren’t starting from scratch. So I hope that we’ll have an immunisation within the next year.

Luke Ravenhill, via Snapchat

Q Can we use someone’s antibodies to make a vaccine?

A In short, I think it’s entirely possible. The very fact that the disease is mild in some 80 per cent of patients suggests most of us have an immune system that can successfully fight the virus.

The hope is that these antibodies will remain in the body and provide people who have had the infection with some immunity – antibodies act almost as a kind of immune memory. Once they’ve been created, your body can quickly mobilise them again if re-exposed.

Experts are in a race to use these antibodies to develop vaccines around the world – at least 35 companies and academics have started this process and four vaccine candidates have already been tested on humans.

Eunice Archibald, via email

Q Who will be the first people to receive a vaccine?

A We don’t really know yet, but if a vaccine is developed then there will almost definitely be a limited supply in the early stages, so it will be important to prioritise. It’s likely that the most vulnerable will be at the top of the list.

However, vaccines aren’t always as successful in elderly people, because aged immune systems do not respond as well to immunisation. So it might be that we see those who live with or care for the elderly prioritised instead.

One group who will almost certainly be prioritised is healthcare workers, especially those who come into contact with Covid-19 patients.

Arham Ali, via Snapchat

Q Are antimalarial drugs effective in treating Covid-19?

A This is a great question, Arham. Doctors hope that these drugs will make a difference and initial results look promising – but we don’t have a definite answer yet.

For those who don’t know, chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine have long been used to treat malaria, and were also trialled during the 2002-2003 Sars epidemic.

Last weekend the US Food and Drug Administration approved the antimalarial drugs for emergency use to treat Covid-19, and the results of small studies in France and China suggest that patients who did not have severe symptoms recovered more quickly when given these antiinflammatory treatments.

Monday to Friday, experts are answering your questions about the coronavirus crisis at telegraph.co.uk. Send your questions on face masks to The Telegraph’s Science Editor Sarah Knapton by midday today to yourstory@telegraph.co.uk