Researchers In Hong Kong Might Have Already Developed A Vaccine For The Coronavirus

When you have a sore throat, there are medicines for it that can cure it or make you feel better. Unfortunately, one of the reasons why the new coronavirus that came out of China is so deadly is because there doesn’t seem to be a cure for it, or could there? According to a recent report, it seems that researchers in Hong Kong might have developed a vaccine for it already.

According to infectious diseases expert Professor Yuen Kwok-yung from the University of Hong Kong, it seems that they have managed to develop a vaccine for the virus. While this is no doubt good news, Yuen cautions that it might be a while before it can be distributed to the public and those who are infected by it.

This is because there needs to be a testing phase where they plan on testing it on animals first before moving on to human trials. He estimates that it would probably take a few months to test it on animals, and at least another year before human clinical trials can begin. The vaccine is said to be based on a nasal spray influenza vaccine that was also previously developed by Yuen’s team.

The new vaccine essentially takes the old vaccine and modified it with part of the surface antigen of the coronavirus, which in theory should be able to prevent not just the coronavirus, but influenza viruses as well.

According to Yuen, “We have already produced the vaccine, but it will take a long time to test on animals. If the vaccine appears effective and safe in a number of animal species, it will go into clinical trials on humans. This takes at least one year even if expedited.”

Tyler Lee
Categories: Medical
Tags: China, Health, Science