With the havoc COVID-19 has wreaked on our lives, we¡¯re all desperately waiting for a drug that can help us take down the novel coronavirus and bring our lives back to normal.?
There are quite a few vaccines that are currently in the race, however, the one that has garnered the most appreciation and popularity has to be the one being developed by?Oxford University¡¯s Jenner Institute.?
The COVID-19 vaccine called?ChAdOx1 developed by Oxford researcher?Dr Sarah Gilbert and her team has shown promising results and she herself has been the most optimistic about the vaccine, claiming that she has an 80 percent probability that it¡¯ll safely protect people from SARS CoV-2.?
However, whenever we hear about a new vaccine, especially potential volunteers who would go under the trail of this vaccine to test its efficacy, these words don¡¯t provide much comfort as a lot can go wrong. But Sarah Gilbert is so confident about its safety that even her three kids decided to be in the COVID-19 vaccine trial.?
Three 21-year old triplets, who are also studying biochemistry decided to take part in the trial. She revealed this while in a conversation with Bloomberg. When asked whether the family discussed this before participating in the rather risky trial. she said, ¡°We didn¡¯t really discuss it as I wasn¡¯t home much at the time. We know the adverse event profile and we know the dose to use because we¡¯ve done this so many times before. Obviously we¡¯re doing safety testing, but we¡¯re not concerned.¡±
She also emphasized that the current priority is how fast the vaccine can be provided to the masses. She also shared that her kids are safe and they managed to clear the trials without any adverse effects.?
Oxford researchers have teamed up with AstraZeneca for mass production of the vaccines to spread to the world once everything is greenlit. In India, Serum Institute has the authority to manufacture and distribute the vaccine across the country by the name of Covishield. Once Phase 3 trials complete, the vaccine will be launched in India by November this year with people commencing the vaccinations as early as December this year.