Coronavirus: UK tests vaccine

Whereas the World Health Organization (WHO) is Donald Trump's favorite target, pointing to it as "China's accomplice" for hiding valuable information about SARS-CoV-2 that caused COVID-19, from New York, António Guterres, the UN's top representative, is urging the global scientific community to find a vaccine so that we can soon "get back to normal".  

At present, there are more than one hundred research projects in various parts of the world, some related to therapies and others to vaccines, to combat coronavirus infection. Alternative therapies such as the plasma technique for patients cured of coronavirus are being experimented with in China, India, Spain and the United States; Chinese scientists report some effectiveness in patients treated with both plasma and immunoglobulin. Within the U.S. some companies are working against the clock for a COVID-19 cure, not only as a matter of health, but also as a result of a dispute between countries to see which will succeed in defeating the pandemic.

Gilead Sciences recently reported that patients treated with remdesivir had reacted positively - in six out of every ten patients observed - according to reports from the US hospital network; a data rejected in China according to its scientific community, which "did not provide any evidence of a consecutive series" to verify its effectiveness and which in the case of China it has shown a limited posology. 

At the same time, there is a race to get the vaccine and the lead in this case is not held by Chinese, Americans, Spaniards or Germans: Oxford University informed the WHO that it has begun to vaccinate a group of 1,100 volunteers in the United Kingdom, basically people between 18 and 55 years old. The immunization against coronavirus is injectable and is composed of an adenovirus that causes a normal flu; in China, for example, CanSino Biologics also implements a vaccine incorporating an adenovirus. 

Oxford University is collaborating with the Jenner Institute and has received a 23-million-euro donation from the British government ordered by Prime Minister Boris Johnson at the beginning of April. If all goes well with this first group of individuals, the goal is for the vaccine called ChAdOx1nCovid-19 to be injected into 5,000 volunteers by the end of May; and for its large-scale production, it has been confirmed that the prestigious Serum Institute of India will have the green light to produce it on a scale of millions of doses per month in September. 

On the other hand, a vaccine designed by the American company Rocky Mountain is in the experimental phase with monkeys, while other local competitors such as Moderna and Inovio are testing it with synthetic genetic material. In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel has already approved the project, while the Spanish pharmaceutical industry believes that the world's population will be vaccinated against COVID-19 in the first quarter of 2021. In terms of timeframes, the WHO is less optimistic, maintaining a horizon of "up to 18 months" for mass vaccination because a lot of solid evidence is still "missing". 

In the meantime, we will have to wait for the antidote and do so with all the necessary precautions. Some European countries are trying a de-escalation that seems difficult in Spain, Italy, France and even the United Kingdom itself; the coronavirus crisis has opened up a gap between two different kinds of society: the one that will take care of itself and change its life habits, as it understands the deep and intrinsic meaning of this pandemic, given that it exposes the vulnerability of human beings. And another much more incredulous which believes that life should be lived with intensity... at any cost.

The streets in Spain are full of people right now: the government of President Pedro Sánchez is starting a five-phase de-escalation (from 0 to 4), allowing children, the elderly, dependent people and those who do sports to exit; although there is a time slot for some groups, the truth is that people have gone onto the streets... and have done so without testing, without knowing whether they are carriers and transmitters of the virus; the breeding ground for a second wave in September will begin to spread. A vaccine is needed!