No fewer than 17,000 engagements on social media reacts to Sechenov University claims to be the first to complete human trials on CoronaVirus Vaccine.
The news about the completion of the tests on volunteers was declared by Alexander Lukashev, the director of the Institute of Medical Parasitology, Tropical and Vector-Borne Diseases at Sechenov University:
A twitter handler Shivam Raj, tweeted that; a major milestone achievement in the development of novel coronavirus vaccine by sechenov university of Russia. Hope for a better tomorrow.
Another Vadim Tarasov, took to his twitter handle that; the director of the Institute for Translational Medicine and Biotechnology, told Sputnik that the first batch of volunteers will be discharged on Wednesday, whereas, the second will be discharged on July 20.
Also, Sanghamirta Sahui said; “I heard this type of news many times. Turkey a few months ago claimed that the country finally prepared #coronavaccine .
“After that we all came to know it’s not true, that’s why I don’t want to believe any type of news unless otherwise, officially announced by WHO.”
According to a report by TIMESOFINDIA, said even as coronavirus cases across the world continue to plummet in a dangerous way, a novel vaccine developed by the University of Sechenov, Russia might be one of the first of its kind to be effective against the virus.
“Sechenov University has successfully completed tests on volunteers of the world’s first vaccine against coronavirus,” adding that the volunteers will be discharged in the coming week. The group had started clinical trials in mid-June.
Reports suggest the vaccine trial was given the go-ahead by the Russian Health Ministry on June 16, following which, the first group of volunteers received the jab of the vaccine which were held at the Gamaleya Institute, an epidemiology research centre in Moscow.
“The safety of the vaccine is confirmed. It corresponds to the safety of those vaccines that are currently on the market,” Lukashev told a leading Russian media agency.
“The further vaccine development plan is already being determined by the developer’s strategy, including the complexity of the epidemiological situation with the virus and the possibility of scaling up production.”
While Russian authorities claim to be the first to develop a vaccine, it is still unclear as to how and when will the vaccine be made available.
Some have also raised doubts over the stage of completion of the trials. Considering the small scale of volunteers involved in the study, it might be possible that further research may be needed before the vaccine is cleared for use.
If the vaccine prototype receives approvals in time, it can be one of the first coronavirus vaccines available to the world.
According to the WHO, 110+ groups globally are in contention to develop a COVID-19 vaccine, out of which, over 5 have proceeded to advanced stages of the vaccine trial. Even though some scientists claim that having a vaccine available for public use by the end of the year is a tall ambitious claim, nonetheless, trials and testing are going on at warp speed.
Meanwhile, Chinese vaccine maker Cansino Biologics is also said to be in talks with Russian authorities to outsource trials of their prototype, Sinovac there. Trials of the same are also happening in Brazil.
Apart from vaccine development, Russia is also studying the feasibility of experimental therapies and medical interventions in treating positive coronavirus cases in the country, which remains one of the worst affected in the world.
