Vaccine - our last great hope. Boris Johnson has buggered up everything else

[knittingaddict]

So that's what Boris Johnson is placing all his hopes on. Wonderful.

[Sunshinegirl82]

I am no BJ fan but I’m also placing quite a lot of hope on a vaccine! I have had everything crossed that the Oxford group come up trumps since March!

[MadameMarie]

If there is an effective vaccine (there never has been before for this kind of virus) it'll likely be at least well into next year and miss at least the second wave. We're going to have to cope this winter without one realistically.

[Sunshinegirl82]

We have coronavirus vaccines for animals and a MERS vaccine is in clinical trials. The Oxford group have had good results with their vaccine candidate in monkeys as have the Chinese vaccine group and the Moderna vaccine candidate.

I’m really hopeful we will have something sooner than people might anticipate.

[knittingaddict]

I'm hopeful too, but I would prefer to have more confidence in the government in the meantime.

[BlackWhitePurple]

There's also a reasonable chance that the virus will mutate to become less deadly. It might turn into something more like the common cold.

Bear in mind that we probably could develop a vaccine for the "common cold", it's just not worth it (there are loads of different viruses that cause colds, so we'd need to cover all of them, and it's much easier to just let people sneeze their way through it).

[Deblou43]

I hope so as I am more worried about mental health mine included than the virus

[Bol87]

I read a bit about the monkey trials of the Oxford vaccine. It didn’t stop them catching it but it did prevent serious illness, it stopped pneumonia developing. And while obviously the desired outcome of a vaccine is stopping you catching a virus/illness, for now, that would be enough in my opinion. If they can stop it becoming a serious illness, it frees the vulnerable & takes massive pressure off the NHS. We can all deal with more minor illness as we do every year with colds, coughs, infections etc If that buys us time to return to some normality while a better vaccine is developed then great!

Chatting to a friend just yesterday, her husband works for Astra Zeneca & they are fully in preparation for production of the Oxford vaccine..

As above, I’m no BoJo fan but I also have always had my hopes pinned on a vaccine!

[Sunshinegirl82]

@Bol87

They also gave the monkeys a massive dose of the virus which isn’t very representative of natural infection.

I’m really happy they are front loading the manufacturing (I know they said they were going to but great to hear that they actually are!) if it comes off it will be amazing.

[LeFluffyPants]

@Sunshinegirl82 yes exactly that - Adrian Hill who’s director of the Jenner Institute said they’d “swamped the noses” of the monkeys with the virus which, he believes, is why the virus was detectable there. So likely quite different to how humans actually catch the disease!

In case you haven’t seen it, he also did a great webinar about his hopes for the vaccine and the science behind it - easy to find if you google.

Thanks for your positive, balanced posts, I always really appreciate them 😊

[Mummypig2020]

I work with adults who have learning disabilities. At work today a young girl FaceTimed us just to say hi as she has cf so can’t come in. I said “ohh hopefully it won’t be long before you come back”
To which their parent said she won’t be coming back until there’s a vaccine.. but what if there
Never is?

[Redolent]

I’m also hopeful about treatment options - say a combo of three drugs taken early on in the illness that prevent you from deteriorating. Some experts think that’s near guaranteed by the end of the year.

[Sunshinegirl82]

@LeFluffyPants

Thank you, that webinar was fascinating! I have been willing Oxford on since this whole thing started. I’m keeping everything crossed!

[LeFluffyPants]

Yes me too, everything crossed!

@Redolent yes I have also heard this about treatments - a combination of drugs to take as soon as someone tests positive that could help keep people out of hospital/getting severely ill. There was a great BBC article about it the other week. It seems hopeful!

[feelingverylazytoday]

I'm very hopeful about this as well.
The UK is also involved in trials of existing drugs that can hopefully be repurposed. A specific form of Ibuprofen is the latest one, and Hydroxychloquorine seems to be back on the table again.

[EarlGreywithLemon]

Fingers crossed for Oxford! I’ve been a pessimist throughout this, but I’m optimistic on this.

[Char2015]

@Sunshinegirl82

"They also gave the monkeys a massive dose of the virus which isn’t very representative of natural infection."

This was very reassuring. The fact they had a much higher dose and didn't get seriously ill offers a lot of hope.

I'm following Oxford very closely and wish them all the best in developing this vaccine.

[Sunshinegirl82]

The webinar that @LeFluffyPants very kindly highlighted explained that the monkey trial was principally a safety trial to be certain that vaccination didn’t result in making people more unwell in certain circumstances. That had been a problem with some of the vaccine candidates for SARS and, even though the Oxford vaccine is made in a different way to that particular SARS vaccine candidate, the regulators said they would feel more comfortable if that additional check was made.

Fortunately nothing of that nature occurred but it explains why they gave the monkeys such a massive dose of the virus.

Also lots of reassuring information about why they have been able to develop this vaccine so quickly when others have taken much longer in the past (I know that’s something that concerns a lot of people). Principally an abundance of resources and focus!

[PlanDeRaccordement]

I do not have much hope for a vaccine.
Coronaviruses mutate very quickly. There are already three Covid strains going about. We never could do a vaccine for SARS despite 15yrs study. And Covid is a SARS type of corona virus.

Nope, we will have more luck with an antiviral drug than a vaccine much like we have used for HIV.

[Sunshinegirl82]

Coronaviruses mutate less quickly than flu viruses and there is nothing to suggest that this coronavirus will mutate significantly enough that a vaccine would be rendered ineffective.

I think this article explains it really well:

www.city-journal.org/coronavirus-vaccine

I am hopeful of antivirals too. Best case we have both by the end of the year.

[feelingverylazytoday]

We never could do a vaccine for SARS despite 15yrs study
Actually there was vaccine in development, but SARS was contained/burned out before it was needed. There's nothing to suggest that that wouldn't have worked if SARS had lasted longer.

[IcedPurple]

We never could do a vaccine for SARS despite 15yrs study

There hasn't been '15 years study' for a SARS vaccine, because it was successfully contained in 2003. Who's going to fund vaccine research for a disease which no longer exists, and where would you find the test cases?

But the good news is that because Covid is quite similar to both SARS and MERS, some of the preparatory work on developing vaccines for both the above has formed the basis for the Covid vaccine development.

[B1rdbra1n]

My crystal ball says🔮
no vaccine

[Char2015]

indianexpress.com/article/coronavirus/corona-covid-19-vaccine-update-june-oxford-moderna-pfizer-icmr-6442354/

What great news that Brazil have approved clinical trials for the Oxford vaccine. Yesterday, Brazil had 1,349 deaths and 28,633 positive results in a 24 hour period. Where their infection rate is so high, it makes sense for trials to begin there. Thank you Brazil. I know our chances of getting results fairly soon were reducing as the infection rate falls here but hopefully with Brazil's help we should get the results in the time frame that Oxford need them to stay on track with the ambitious September for 40 million doses in partnership with Astra Zeneca.

[Sunshinegirl82]

Great news!! Obviously it’s terrible that Brazil still have so many cases but the quicker we can get the trials completed the better chance we all have of getting something that will really improve things.

[DippyAvocado]

Let's just hope that if and when a vaccine becomes available, the government don't somehow manage to bugger up rolling it out.