First patients injected as UK begins Coronavirus vaccine trial

The first human trial in Europe of a coronavirus vaccine has begun in Oxford.
Two volunteers were injected out of more than 800 people recruited for the study.

Elisa Granato (pictured above), a scientist, was the first volunteer to be injected and she said she volunteered because she wanted to try to support the scientific process.

Half of those who volunteered will receive the Covid-19 vaccine, and half a control vaccine which protects against meningitis but not coronavirus.

The design of the trial means volunteers will not know which vaccine they are getting, though doctors will.

The vaccine was developed in under three months by a team at Oxford University.
Sarah Gilbert, professor of vaccinology at the Jenner Institute, led the pre-clinical research.

"Personally I have a high degree of confidence in this vaccine," she said.
"Of course, we have to test it and get data from humans. We have to demonstrate it actually works and stops people getting infected with coronavirus before using the vaccine in the wider population," she added.

The Coronavirus vaccine is made from a weakened version of a common cold virus (known as an adenovirus) from chimpanzees that has been modified so it cannot grow in humans, according to BBC.

The Oxford team has already developed a vaccine against Mers, another type of coronavirus, using the same approach - and that had promising results in clinical trials.

The only way the Oxford team will know if the Covid-19 vaccine works is by comparing the number of people who get infected with coronavirus in the coming months from the two arms of the trial.

That could be a problem if cases fall rapidly in the UK, because there may not be enough data.