Vaccine this year ‘extraordinary’

It will be “extraordinary” if a vaccine is developed to protect against coronavirus within a year, the chief scientific adviser for England has said as the first clinical trial began in the US.

Sir Patrick Vallance hailed the record time between the outbreak of the disease and the first human trial, which is taking place in Seattle funded by the US National Institutes of Health.

Giving evidence to the Commons health committee, Sir Patrick said around 55,000 people in the UK are believed to have coronavirus, and the aim is for fewer than 20,000 people to die from it – compared to 8,000 deaths in an average flue season.

Sir Patrick said the number of predicted deaths was still “horrible”, and there would be a huge amount of strain on the health service from Covid-19.

A global race is on to develop a vaccine for Covid-19, with most estimates putting the time needed to research an effective drug at 18 months.

The EU has announced a multimillion-euro investment in a German company working on a potential vaccine, amid reports that the US government was interested in buying the firm.

Researchers at the University

of Plymouth have also started work on a coronavirus vaccine, working with researchers in China and the United States.

Meanwhile, Sir Patrick advised people to avoid ibuprofen “at the moment” amid confusion over its impact on coronavirus sufferers.

French health minister Olivier Veran had suggested that anti-inflammatory drugs, such as ibuprofen, could worsen the infection.

Sir Patrick told MPS on the committee that that advice “may or may not be right” but added: “The sensible thing to do would be to say don’t take it at the moment, take something else – paracetamol or something.”