Trial Covid-19 vaccine shows promising results – VIDEO

US biotech firm Moderna announced yesterday that its trial vaccine, the first to be tested on humans, appears to be safe and able to stimulate an immune response against Covid-19 infection, offering a glimmer of hope in the ongoing battle to contain the pandemic.

(Interview with trial patient below)

The initial findings, from the first 8 people to receive 2 doses of the experimental vaccine, will now be repeated in larger tests of hundreds, then thousands of people, to determine whether the vaccine can work in the real world. Moderna’s technology, which involves genetic material from the virus called mRNA, is new and has not yet produced any approved vaccine.

The news sent Moderna’s stock soaring by more than 25% and helped drive Wall Street to its best day in six weeks. Stocks were also lifted by statements from the Federal Reserve chairman that the central bank would continue to support the economy and markets.

With the weather warming and states rushing to lift lockdown restrictions, Americans are eager to “regain their freedom” to shop, go to the beach and enjoy bars and restaurants. But more than 1,000 people died of the virus most days last week in the US.

Vaccines are now seen as the best, perhaps the only hope of stopping or slowing a disease that has infected nearly 5 million people worldwide, killed 320,000 and locked down entire countries, paralysing their economies.

A multitude of companies and universities are rushing to create coronavirus vaccines, and several manufacturers, including Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech, the Chinese company CanSino and the University of Oxford, which is working with AstraZeneca, have begun human trials.

Experts say it’s essential to develop multiple vaccines because the urgent global need for billions of doses will outstrip the production capacity of any single manufacturer.

SOURCE: The New York Times