Oxford scientists say they will know if vaccine works within six weeks
Scientists working on a vaccine against coronavirus could know within six weeks whether it will work, they have said.
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Oxford vaccine test results 'expected in six weeks' after experimental jabs
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Sir John Bell, Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford University, said "several hundred" Britons have now been given the experimental jab, with hopes that "signals" about whether it works could emerge by mid-June.
The vaccine is being developed in partnership between Oxford University and biopharmaceutical companyAstraZeneca.
The competition for vaccines meant shortages of such products, meaning a "big and powerful [manufacturing] partner" was needed in order to compete if the trials prove successful, Professor Bell told BBC Radio.
On the other side of the Atlantic, earlier this morning philanthropost Bill Gates said a COVID-19 vaccine could be feasible within nine months.
Writing in a blog post, Gates said he agreed with the US infectious diseases expert Dr Anthony Fauci, who thinks a vaccine will take around 18 months to develop.
"I agree with him, though it could be as little as nine months or as long as two years," Gates said.
Gates said up to ten of the 115 vaccine candidates "look particularly promising" and set out an explanation for how the timeline to produce a vaccine is being compressed.
with Latika Bourke, The Telegraph UK