The fight against the current coronavirus pandemic took a positive turn this week when Oxford University launched the first human trial for a potential vaccine.
Vaccine development is usually a long process, usually taking years and decades, and is often unsuccessful. However with new scientific methods and technological advancements, this process has been reduced to a mere months.
Covid-19 will be the first major case of rapid vaccine development. There are currently more than 100 research projects around the world working on the same thing, with 7 currently in clinical trials.
In the UK, the first human trials started this week.
In its first phase, half of 1,112 volunteers will receive the potential vaccine against COVID-19, the other half a control vaccine to test its safety and efficacy.
All volunteers are aged between 18 and 55, in good health and have not tested positive for the virus.
While this is good news to humanity, Kenyans might not be happy with what comes next.
Appearing on a UK news program, a person with insights into the Oxford project revealed that should the UK trials fail to provide ‘early, quick results’, the team is considering a trial in Kenya.
Here’s the video.
The last person to propose a trial in Africa was a French doctor, and that was received very badly.
Many high profile Kenyans, including controversial pastor James Ng’ang’a, told him off saying they should first trial on themselves.
Well, in this case they are, but I don’t think that will be enough to appease Kenyans.
What do you think?
