The Chinese authorities have announced through a statement from the Defense Ministry that they have successfully developed a vaccine against the coronavirus, for which they have approved the conduct of human trials.
The vaccine has been developed by a team of scientists led by military biowarfare epidemiologist Chen Wei, who announced that Beijing had granted permission to begin human trials.
“The vaccine is the strongest scientific weapon to end the coronavirus,” said the expert.
Wei, commander general of the Chinese People’s Army, has already fought against SARS in the past , developing a medical spray in 2003 that prevented around 14,000 medical workers from getting the virus, and also Ebola (in fact, it is popularly known as as the ‘Ebola terminator’) because he got the vaccine against this deadly disease.
The new vaccine – which for Chen has been like a military situation – was successfully developed after more than a month of research, including studying Ebola vaccines. It passed the clinical research registry review and was approved for clinical trial Monday night. And, in accordance with international standards and national regulations , vaccines have been prepared for safe, effective, controllable and quality production on a large scale.
China is developing the COVID-19 vaccine using five technical routes, including the inactivated vaccine, the attenuated influenza virus vaccine and the nucleic acid-based vaccine, said Wang Junzhi, an academic at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, at a press conference in Beijing.
The military has advantages in vaccine development, as they face fewer restrictions to reach samples and advanced experimental conditions, compared to private companies and institutes, which is a decisive factor in a crisis situation like this.
Doesn’t the mask prevent contagion?
This same week, Chinese scientists took a big step after seeing in one of their experiments that a group of infected monkeys effectively developed “immunity” to the coronavirus, according to data from the local newspaper ‘The South China Morning Post’ . However, the researchers discovered indications that these animals could be spread through the eyes, which would be equivalent to wearing masks would not be enough to avoid contagion.
The United States has also announced a vaccine
About 19 hours after the United States announced the start of two human trials for the first coronavirus vaccine, this announcement came from China. US media reported that the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine had begun clinical trials on Monday in 45 healthy volunteers. Of course, given the advantages of China’s system, for example, by speeding up the examination and approval procedure, this country is expected to be at the forefront in the commercialization of the vaccine, according to analysts. Although it is likely that the vaccine will not be available for massive use for another 12-18 months, it does offer the world great hope to combat the disease that in Spain alone there are already almost 12,000 cases diagnosed today. .
What if we are too rushed to prepare the vaccine?
While everyone strives to have an experimental vaccine against the coronavirus as soon as possible, many scientists are concerned about the risk of breaking the usual protocol in this type of cases. It seems that testing on animal models is out of the way . And this is not how vaccine testing is normally done. Regulators require a manufacturer to demonstrate that a product is safe before it reaches people, and although it is not enshrined in law, researchers almost always verify that a new mixture is effective in laboratory animals before putting volunteers in humans at potential risk.
The fact that it is not being done reflects the urgency of developing vaccines to counter the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Being in a rush for potentially dangerous vaccines and therapies will betray trust and discourage work to develop better assessments. Despite the genuine need for urgency, the old saying goes: measure twice, cut once, ” explains Shibo Jiang, professor of virology at the School of Basic Medical Sciences, Shanghai Fudan University, China. Nature magazine.
For some, the extent of the outbreak is urgent enough to justify working simultaneously in steps that would normally take place sequentially. To others, mixing the order seems morally questionable, because there could be unknown dangers and it is unclear how effective this particular formulation will be.
