From:
slider@atashram.com
A potential coronavirus vaccine being developed at the University of
Oxford will be trialled on people from Thursday, Health Secretary Matt
Hancock said.
Discussing conversations with leading scientists working on such a vaccine
he said: "We are going to back them to the hilt."
It comes as the UK remains in lockdown due to the coronavirus, with Mr
Hancock stating a vaccine will be the best way for restrictions to
completely end in the long term.
He added that work is being done so that a vaccine, if it is found, can be rolled out on a wide-scale to the public "as soon as humanly possible".
Speaking at a press briefing, he said: “In the long run, the best way to defeat coronavirus is through a vaccine.
“After all, this is a new disease, this is uncertain science but I’m certain we will throw everything we’ve got at developing a vaccine.
“The UK is at the front of the global effort. We have put more money than
any other country into a global search for a vaccine and, for all the
efforts around the world, two of the leading vaccine developments are
taking place here at home – at Oxford and Imperial.
“Both of these promising projects are making rapid progress and I’ve told the scientists leading them we will do everything in our power to support.”
The project at Imperial College London will receive £22.5 million to
support its phase two clinical trials and Oxford University will be
granted £20 million to fund its clinical trials.
Mr Hancock said the process for finding a vaccine would take “trial and error” but he has told UK scientists leading the search he would “back
them to the hilt and give them every resource they need” in order to
succeed.
“After all, the upside of being the first country in the world to develop
a successful vaccine is so huge that I am throwing everything at it,” said
Mr Hancock.
### - this would be a synthetic vaccine then, one designed to genetically emulate the protein receptor the virus uses to lock-on to the cells it
intends to infect, that by 'artificially' blocking those same cell
receptors it thus denies the virus access to them, that if it can't
lock-onto a cell it can't then discharge its payload into it...
a clever enough idea, if it works, although who knows what side-effects blocking those receptors may or may not have upon these same cells to
function normally afterwards?
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)
