to have the corvid jab or not

[Lost Generation 93]

Here's some food for MaxSnowflake and the rest of the trolls:

How Oxford scientists developed a Covid-19 vaccine in record time

Experts involved in the inoculation race explain how the jab was developed

14 JAN 2021

Tonia Thomas, vaccine knowledge project manager at the University of Oxford and Rachel Colin-Jones, visiting academic at Oxford University’s Centre for Clinical Vaccinology and Tropical Medicine, on how the first vaccine developed in the UK was produced.

The pandemic is only a year old, but we already have multiple vaccines available to fight Covid-19 – including the vaccine developed by the team we’re part of at the University of Oxford.

With our partner AstraZeneca, we have submitted both interim efficacy data and safety data for the vaccine to regulators across the world for independent scrutiny and approval. So far the vaccine has been approved for emergency use in the UK, India, Morocco, Argentina and El Salvador.

As well as being great news for getting us back to normal, this represents a phenomenal scientific achievement. Typically, developing a vaccine takes decades – but we have several available for Covid-19 after just 12 months. Here’s how we managed this for the Oxford vaccine.

A head-start on development

Our vaccine works by delivering the genetic sequence of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein to the body’s cells (the spike proteins are the distinctive structures that “crown” the coronavirus’s surface).

The body’s cells read this genetic code and start producing copies of the spike protein, and the immune system then mounts a response against these proteins and remembers them. This means that if SARS-CoV-2 later enters the body, its spike proteins will immediately flag it to the immune system for destruction.

This may sound complicated, but when the pandemic arrived, we had a head start, as we had already developed a delivery method – or “platform” – for our vaccine and had been testing it for other diseases for almost ten years. Known as the ChAdOx1 viral vector technology, this platform was created by modifying a harmless adenovirus that causes the common cold in chimpanzees.

ChAdOx1 was chosen as it can generate a strong immune response and is not a replicating virus, so cannot cause an infection. It had already been used safely in thousands of subjects in clinical trials of vaccines for other diseases including Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome (Mers), which is caused by another type of coronavirus.

Our ongoing research into ChAdOx1 was part of preparing for “Disease X”, one of eight diseases prioritised for research by the World Health Organization (WHO) due to the risk they pose to public health. Covid-19 has since been added to this list.

Disease X is a placeholder name that highlights that the next serious epidemic could be caused by a pathogen as yet unknown to scientists, which is what happened with the coronavirus.

Having an already developed platform ready meant that testing of the vaccine could begin quickly. University of Oxford

Once researchers in China had mapped the genetic sequence of the coronavirus, we were able to quickly produce our Covid-19 vaccine by combining the ChAdOx1 vector with the genetic sequence of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein.

The preparation for Disease X ultimately allowed our research team to move straight into testing our vaccine in animals in early 2020, and then to combine the data from these tests with data we had already gathered in previous trials using ChAdOx1, to show that what we were developing worked.

Making human trials more efficient

With good data from our animal studies, we were ready to move onto clinical trials – essentially a series of tests to show that a treatment is safe and effective in humans.

Vaccine trials are typically split into three phases. Phase 1 assesses the safety of a vaccine and how well it is tolerated, as well as the immune response. Phase 2 involves testing on a larger, more diverse group of people and is used to identify the optimal dose and schedule.

Phase 3 then aims to test the safety and efficacy of a vaccine in a large group of people, often in multiple locations. This is usually assessed by monitoring how many cases of the disease are seen in a group that gets the vaccine versus a group that doesn’t.

Ordinarily, the different trial phases are run separately, often with time between them for preparing protocols and funding applications, then seeking ethical and regulatory approvals. But for our vaccine, we undertook combined phase 1 and 2 and phase 2 and 3 trials to speed up the development process.

This doesn’t mean that any of the required steps were missed out, but rather that we could launch the next stage of the trial as soon as we had collected enough data from the previous phase and had it reviewed by the independent Data Safety Monitoring Board.

Moving quickly but safely

Some people have questioned the speed of vaccine development during the pandemic. However, the Oxford Covid-19 vaccine trial – which is still ongoing – is undergoing the same intense scrutiny as other vaccine trials. Interim analysis has shown that the vaccine is safe and effective, but the final stages of its phase 3 trial are still being completed. 

Throughout, all participants are being closely monitored, and a report is made about anyone who has a medically significant illness or is hospitalised, for whatever cause, even a broken leg. If any of these events is thought to be possibly related to the vaccine, an independent review takes place to carefully assess the medical information.

While this happens, vaccinations are paused. They’re then restarted once the review is complete and it is considered safe to continue.

All told, the vaccine will have been tested on almost five times as many volunteers as is usually required for licensing a vaccine. By the end of the trials we’re running, 24,000 people will have taken part in four countries and another 30,000 in trials run by our partners.

Testing in different populations is crucial, as any vaccine developed for Covid-19 is likely to be deployed to a large number of people worldwide.

Tonia Thomas, vaccine knowledge project manager at the University of Oxford, and Rachel Colin-Jones, visiting academic at Oxford University’s Centre for Clinical Vaccinology and Tropical Medicine.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

[ChrisJones 7,973]

16 minutes ago, Balaur said:

Hardly rudderless think we've been shipped in a definite direction.....

That would imply some kind of political cohesion to some degree. We've seen on both sides of the Atlantic that these so called leaders wouldn't work together even if they could.

It's almost like when they started it sounded like a good idea but when the actual work toll showed up they just f*ck*d it off and drifted like far too many do in the public sector.

Before we fix the rudder, maybe we should get a decent f*ck*ng anchor?

[ChrisJones 7,973]

2 minutes ago, maxhardcore said:

Hancock was in a local north London park today ‘ no mask ect throwing a rugby ball around .

Do you think he would be doing that if he thought he might contract something that would kill him or his family ?

From what the internet has shown me of Matt Hancock in the last few weeks the word "oblivious" springs to mind. But that says more about the people that voted for him...

[Francie 6,362]

3 minutes ago, maxhardcore said:

So your only a troll if you don’t want the vax ffs

Haha he is lost

[Francie 6,362]

1 minute ago, ChrisJones said:

From what the internet has shown me of Matt Hancock in the last few weeks the word "oblivious" springs to mind. But that says more about the people that voted for him...

Ah chris give over way your condescending ways,there all wankers end off story,ye have to pick one,or none maybe,but that stupid line about voters is very cringe.

[ChrisJones 7,973]

2 minutes ago, Francie said:

Ah chris give over way your condescending ways,there all wankers end off story,ye have to pick one,or none maybe,but that stupid line about voters is very cringe.

Not really. You reap what you sow. He was voted into office and then voted into position by his party.

He didn't just magically appear and the public bear some responsibility for that.

[Greb147 6,808]

Just read that Washington has evidence that the Wuhan Institute of Virology had the virus in the autumn of 2019.

[thefensarefarbutistillgo 2,480]

3 hours ago, maxhardcore said:

Hancock was in a local north London park today ‘ no mask ect throwing a rugby ball around .

Do you think he would be doing that if he thought he might contract something that would kill him or his family ?

Hancock has already had covid months ago 

[Greb147 6,808]

This virus is very real, it's even hospitalised Paddy Doherty and put him at deaths door. 

If it does the same to Junky Joe I'm begging for a vaccine..... 

Paddy Doherty reveals doctors told him he was 'hours from death' after falling ill with coronavirus

WWW.THESUN.CO.UK

---

PADDY Doherty has revealed doctors told him he was just hours away from dying after falling seriously ill with...

 

[South hams hunter 8,837]

And Stuart core

 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.plymouthherald.co.uk/news/plymouth-news/super-fit-plymouth-bodybuilder-stuart-4893361.amp

[tatsblisters 7,950]

The old woman has had the jab this morning straight from doing a 12 hour night shift but not the Oxford one she started nagging me to get jabbed thank feck she is on night's most of the week as i can see another domestic coming on.

[Greyman 25,261]

On 13/01/2021 at 12:31, sandymere said:

The vaccine will most likely boost your longer term up immunity. 

So will catching Covid every few years as millions of people already have hence there own natural immunity making them Asymatic Covid 19 may be a new variant but we have been experiencing different Covid viruses for years which is why we have different levels of immunity already

[Greb147 6,808]

7 minutes ago, Greyman said:

So will catching Covid every few years as millions of people already have hence there own natural immunity making them Asymatic Covid 19 may be a new variant but we have been experiencing different Covid viruses for years which is why we have different levels of immunity already

So you would prefer to catch the virus, have it knock the stuffing out of you and possibly kill you rather than have the vaccine? 

Each to their own but I can't see the logic in that mate. 

[Greyman 25,261]

Nothing to see here, we expected the old and frail to die from it that’s why we started injecting it into the old and frail, instead of the young and healthy as in every other vaccine ever rolled out fully trialed no surprises safe as houses but might just need to change the guidelines once again, oh and I think 10 have also dropped dead in Germany from it,  

 

[Greb147 6,808]

5 minutes ago, Greyman said:

Nothing to see here, we expected the old and frail to die from it that’s why we started injecting it into the old and frail, instead of the young and healthy as in every other vaccine ever rolled out fully trialed no surprises safe as houses but might just need to change the guidelines once again, oh and I think 10 have also dropped dead in Germany from it,  

 

Or maybe they died despite receiving the vaccine and not because of it?