The race for a vaccine
Around the world, coronavirus vaccines are hurtling through the development process, said The Daily Telegraph. A vaccine developed by Oxford University has been shown to protect macaque monkeys exposed to Sars-CoV-2 from pneumonia. The Government said the vaccine could be available for 30 million Britons by September, after it brokered a deal between Oxford and the manufacturer AstraZeneca. The US biotech firm Moderna also revealed that, in human trials, its Covid-19 vaccine had successfully triggered an immune response. And a vaccine made by China’s Sinovac Biotech has been shown to work in animals.
Even so, the picture is “murky”, said Ewen Callaway in Nature. Moderna’s trial was small; its inoculation involves injecting a segment of the virus’s genetic material (its “messenger RNA”), rather than the virus itself, to prime the immune system. RNA vaccines are experimental; none has yet been licensed for human use. As for the Oxford vaccine, in monkeys it didn’t reach the gold standard: ridding the body of infection. So even if it protects those vaccinated, it may not stop them spreading the virus. Vaccine “candidates” have been produced in record time, said Max Nisen on Bloomberg. But parts of the process, notably the randomised trials needed to assess safety and efficacy, “simply cannot be rushed”. Immune systems vary greatly from person to person, so the trials need to be large and painstaking. And the bar has to be set high, as vaccines could be given to billions. Every vaccine is a long shot. Despite “the world’s urgent need”, this will take time.
“Vaccine nationalism” is on the rise, said Richard Milne in the FT. Earlier pandemics have shown that nations are unlikely to give a vaccine away before fulfilling their own needs. So rich nations are signing priority deals with their pharmaceutical firms, while the US and China are pouring huge resources into a sort of “space race” to find a vaccine and secure “bragging rights”. The prospect of “equitable” global cooperation looks very distant.