Imminent vaccine for Covid19

[MamaBeagle]

It seems the vaccine could be available in the autumn. How and when will we know if it will be safe for us GCAers and PMRers? Any thought?

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer]

This is what BBC news say -

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-53469839

But I think that the answer is - wait and see

And whether is a live vaccine -

“Will the coronavirus vaccine be made of the live virus?

A handful of existing vaccines — including polio, chicken pox and the measles, mumps and rubella shot (MMR) — contain a weakened version of the live virus that causes the disease. Because it’s the closest thing to a natural infection, so-called live attenuated vaccines “are good teachers for the immune system,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) explains.

Few research teams are taking this approach with the coronavirus vaccine, however, since “it takes a lot of time to be sure [the virus used in the vaccine] is weak enough that it doesn’t cause disease,” Neuzil says. And in a pandemic, time is of the essence.

Instead, scientists are looking at different ways to introduce a piece of the virus to the body — whether it’s a protein from the virus or a genetic code that the body can use to make its own protein to stimulate an immune response. Some are also studying the possibility of introducing the coronavirus by way of a vector, where a gene for a protein of the coronavirus, for example, is inserted into a harmless form of another virus and delivered to the cells. The advantage of this approach, Neuzil says, is that the vector-carrying vaccine “looks more like the real virus than perhaps just a piece of the protein does.”

“These are just different ways that we’re trying to get at the same goal: We’re trying to have the body make its own immune response to the virus,” Neuzil says. “Since this is such a new disease, we don’t really know what’s going to work the best for [the coronavirus], so we’re trying a number of different approaches.”

[piglette]

I believe some of them are live vaccines, but it seems Oxford University have created a new type so older people can have it. Don’t hold your breath though, it is unlikely we will see anything before next year, if ever, if the coronavirus decides to mutate.

[maria40 in reply to piglette]

This was the questions that was buzzing round my head in the wee small hours this morning: would I be sure to get an inactivated vaccine? Jumping the gun a bit but that's never stopped me worrying about anything

[piglette in reply to maria40]

I have been filling in a European Covid questionnaire over the last few weeks and they have just offered me to be a vaccine test volunteer. I did actually decline.

[Rose54 in reply to piglette]

Hi

I have been doing same one but not asked to do trial

[PMRpro Ambassador]

I'll believe it when it happens. And I don't think I'll let them try it on me just yet!!!

But this time next year seems the most likely. I really would believe the WHO statement before the media excitement.