VACCINE IN 5 MONTHS?! Oxford team believes they'll have a million #COVID19 vaccine doses and proof that it's safe and effective by September 2020. The team says the past success of the technology is why it'll beat the government's timeline.

THREAD https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-why-oxford-university-is-so-confident-in-an-early-vaccine-win-11977568

2) same vaccine technology has been used before, including MERS, as well as Ebola. ChAdOx1, pronounced "Chaddox-one", is a version of a common cold virus that has been modified not only so that it doesn't cause symptoms, but also so it carries some genetic material of #COVID19.

3) It infects human cells, turning them into factories producing one of the viral proteins, which in turn trigger an immune response and should protect people against future infection. Using tried and tested technology allows scientists to speed up the clinical trials. #COVID19

4) The medical regulators are satisfied that ChAdOx1 is robust and broadly safe, so the researchers can begin trials on healthy volunteers far sooner. This is why we could use system as short cut to a vaccine by maybe September 2020. Here is hoping trials go smooth #COVID19

5) The Phase One clinical trial is now under way. Around 500 volunteers will be given either the vaccine for #COVID19 or a licensed meningitis jab. That way they can tell whether the experimental is more likely to cause side effects such as a sore arm, fever, or a headache.

6) They should also be able to see at an early stage whether people given the new vaccine are less likely to get #COVID19. Its effectiveness will then need to be confirmed in further phases of trials, involving as many as 5,000 people.

7) “to properly test the vaccine's effectiveness, the scientists are planning to give it to healthcare workers on the front line, who are at greater risk. They might even have to go a country where the epidemic is still raging to get the results they need sooner.” #COVID19