Chinese COVID-19 vaccine proves successful, WHO hopeful about unspecified vaccine

Chinese scientists say an experimental coronavirus vaccine has proven safe, and the United Nations (UN) health agency has expressed hope for the mass production and distribution of billions of doses of vaccines to people across the globe by the end of the year.

According to Press TV, researchers from the Institute of Medical Biology affiliated to the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences said on Tuesday that early-stage Phase 1 clinical trials on 191 healthy participants had been successful and the participants had developed immunity to the COVID-19 disease caused by the coronavirus.

The test group inoculated against the coronavirus, who belonged to various age groups ranging between 18 and 59, suffered no severe adverse reactions after receiving the vaccination, according to the data obtained by the researchers of the institute.

Common side effects reported by those inoculated had been mild pain, slight fatigue, and redness, itching, and swelling at the point of inoculation.

“All the data obtained in this trial support the safety and immunogenicity of this inactivated vaccine and are encouraging with regard to further studies of its efficacy in the future,” the Chinese researchers said in a report.

In a separate development, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday that a vaccine against COVID-19 may be ready for production and distribution by year-end.

“We will need vaccines and there is hope that by the end of this year we may have a vaccine. There is hope,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in an address to the WHO Executive Board at a special session on the body’s COVID-19 response.

He did not elaborate.

Under the WHO’s supervision, more than 170 countries across the globe have taken part in a joint effort to produce a vaccine for global distribution.

ME