On Monday, July 20, Oxford University announced good news--the team said their candidate coronavirus vaccine showed promising results. The vaccine is set to be widely-produced and distributed by September. Here's the problem, though. New speculation is ruining the name of Oxford University, and it involves their newly-created drug.
Oxford does 'challenge trials'?
Daily Mail UK reported on Tuesday, July 21, that the scientists who created the promising Oxford's COVID-19 vaccine face an issue about their creation of the vaccine.
Reports allegedly claim that Oxford University created and tested the vaccine out of patients that are not really infected with the virus. It suggests that the scientists came up with 'challenge trials.' This means Oxford paid people to be intentionally infected with the virus in order for them to make test trials.
The speculations, however, were already answered back by the researchers from Oxford.
Professor Sarah Gilbert, who is leading the Oxford team, clarified that there were no 'challenge trials' that happened within their testing. She said that these types of trials are only made for other respiratory diseases like flu. And not applicable to COVID-19, since the virus is more dominant.
"But in order for it to happen you have to have a number of things in place and one of those is having an effective therapy for people who you deliberately infect as part of the challenge trial who maybe don't clear the infection and at the moment we don't have that effective therapy," said her.
Gilbert also cleared out that they did their trials in most infected countries like South Africa and Brazil. Since the United Kingdom records a smaller population of COVID-19 patients at the beginning of test trials.
How can the Oxford vaccine treat COVID-19?
Tech Times reported on Monday that the University of Oxford had announced the good news to all. British researchers created an experimental vaccine that was found with unwavering 'early results' that can trigger the immune response of a COVID-19 patient.
"We are seeing good immune response in almost everybody," said Dr. Adrian Hill, the Jenner Institute director at Oxford. "What this vaccine does particularly well is triggered both arms of the immune system."
According to the report, the experimental vaccine known as AZD1222 tested over 1,000 people in April. The results came very promisingly, which said to developed T-cells and antibodies in the human body that can fight the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
