Hancock hails safety-first approach as university resumes its vaccine trials
THE University of Oxford resumed its Covid-19 vaccine trials yesterday, with the Health Secretary saying the pause was to “put safety first”.
Researchers were forced to suspend their work on the vaccine last week after a UK volunteer fell ill.
Matt Hancock welcomed the restart of the vaccine trial being developed with British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, tweeting: “Good news for everyone, the Oxford vaccine trials are back up and running. This pause shows we will always put safety first. We will back our scientists to deliver an effective vaccine as soon as safely possible.”
Randomised clinical tests will restart across all UK trial sites, the university announced. Meanwhile, experts expressed concern at the growing antivaccination rhetoric following “savvy” disinformation campaigns online.
Prof Heidi Larson, the chair of the
Vaccine Confidence Project at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, warned that current polling suggests 15 per cent of people around the world would “instinctively refuse” the vaccine owing to the well-funded anti-vax movement.
“The well-choreographed anti-vaccine groups have sophisticated and coordinated communication strategies, are well financed, in some parts have celebrity endorsement, and are adept at using emotional imagery and messaging,” Prof Larson said. “The same levels of investment, communications networking, savvy outreach and engagement are urgently needed around a new Covid-19 vaccine if we want to optimise its impact.”
Details of the illness suffered by one of the trial’s volunteers still remain unclear. According to reports, a volunteer was diagnosed with transverse myelitis, an inflammatory syndrome that affects the spinal cord and can be caused by viral infections.
But the cause of the illness has not been confirmed and an independent investigation will work out if there was any link to the vaccine.
A spokesman from the University of Oxford said: “In large trials such as this, it is expected that some participants will become unwell and every case must be carefully evaluated to ensure careful assessment of safety.”
Prof Peter Openshaw, professor of experimental medicine at Imperial College London, said: “This is excellent news because the Oxford vaccine is one of the most promising.”
Globally, over 18,000 individuals have participated in the trial, which is currently in phase three – the final step before a vaccine is approved.
Two other vaccines are in final-stage tests in the United States, one made by biotechnology company Moderna, and the other by Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech. Despite some figures, such as Donald Trump, the US president, insisting a vaccine will be ready in a matter of months, Oxford University has cautioned this could take until 2022.