London Commences Revolutionary Coronavirus Vaccine Trial As per a recent news release, volunteers have begun being immunized with a new U.K. coronavirus vaccine as it enters the clinical trial phase. Human Trials For New COVID-19 Vaccine Begins In The U.K. According to a new update, a trial led by Prof. Robin Shattock and his colleagues at Imperial College London will include 300 people, all of which will be given the trial vaccine over the coming weeks. This is because previous tests in animals suggest that the vaccine is safe and can trigger an effective immune response against the coronavirus. In fact, experts from Oxford University have already started their human trials. In conjunction with this, there are also around 120 vaccines programs that are under way in many countries across the world. As such, 39-year-old Kathy is one of the first volunteers that are taking part in the Imperial trial. Kathy joined because she wants to play a part in stopping the virus that put us under an unprecedented pandemic. "I think it came from not really knowing what I could do to help, and this turned out to be something that I could do. And understanding that it's not likely that things will get back to normal until there is a vaccine, so wanting to be part of that progress as well," she said. After this initial phase, another trial that will involve some 6,000 people is being planned for October. As such, the Imperial team hopes that come early 2021, the vaccine would be ready to be distributed across the U.K. New Vaccine Approach Usually, traditional vaccines are made from a weakened or modified form of the virus, or in some cases, parts of it. However, the vaccine being developed by the Imperial team is different since it uses synthetic strands of genetic code that is called RNA to mimic the virus. Once the vaccine is injected into our body, the RNA copies itself and instructs our own cells to make copies of a protein that’s found out of the virus. Through this process, the Imperial team hopes to help train our bodies to fight the coronavirus without actually getting it. Source
