We’ll know if vaccine works ‘in just weeks’

EARLY signs of whether a British coronavirus vaccine works – or doesn’t – may be only weeks away, a leading expert has said.

Professor Sarah Gilbert said yesterday she was ‘80 per cent confident’ a vaccine that her team is developing at Oxford University would be effective, and that it could be ready by September.

Now Professor Peter Openshaw, who has advised the Government on vaccines and is vice chair of its virus advisory group Nervtag, says signs as to whether her jab works should become clear very soon.

Prof Gilbert’s team at Oxford’s Jenner Institute is just about to begin testing the vaccine in a six-month trial of 510 volunteers in the Thames Valley region.

But Prof Openshaw said researchers would not have to wait six months for confirmation, saying: ‘We could see a signal very quickly. I do earnestly hope that in the next few weeks they get a positive signal.’

Half those in the trial will get the Oxford vaccine and half a ‘dummy’ jab. If it works, none of those who get the real vaccine – or very, very few – will develop Covid-19. By contrast, some of those who get the placebo would be expected to become infected and have symptoms.

Prof Openshaw said it was ‘astonishing just what progress Sarah [Gilbert] has made’ so far, adding: ‘She’s the woman who can deliver a vaccine’.

But he stressed that she was ‘very methodical’ and was ‘not going to rush forward [claiming it works] until there’s a trial that shows the vaccine prevents people from getting ill.’

He insisted that talks should start now on manufacturing large stocks of the vaccine. ‘There has to be investment in making the vaccine before they know the full results of the trial,’ he said.

‘If someone is prepared to put money upfront and say, “Just in case this works, let’s make millions of doses on spec”, then we might have it ready by the autumn. To my mind, with the situation we are in, where trillions of pounds are at stake because of the impact of coronavirus on the economy, we have to invest now to make a lot of vaccine, even if it’s never used.’

Ironically, the success of Britain’s lockdown could mean it takes longer to tell if the vaccine works, according to experts, as there will be less of the virus circulating.