German institute says coronavirus vaccine could be available by autumn
Germany’s leading infectious diseases institute said today a first vaccine against coronavirus could be available as early as autumn but warned that it may take longer to control the pandemic.
“Preliminary projections make the availability of one or several vaccines seem possible by autumn 2020,” the Robert Koch Institute said in a statement.
“It would be dangerous at this point to trust that a vaccination from autumn 2020 can control the pandemic,” it added.
The impact of any vaccine could be tempered by viral mutations or by the resulting immunity only lasting a short time immunity, the institute said.
Yesterday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the country had developed a vaccine against coronavirus that was safe for widespread human use.
Putin said the vaccine has “passed all the needed checks” and that he had even given the vaccine to one of his daughters.
The vaccine was developed at the Gamaleya Institute in Moscow and has been granted regulatory approval by Russia’s health ministry.
Putin said that Russia would now begin a wide national roll out of the vaccine.
The news is sure to prompt scepticism that a country has been able to approve a safe vaccine in such a short time, despite Putin’s assurances to the contrary.
Last month the University of Oxford’s coronavirus vaccine was deemed safe and found to induce a “strong response” from the immune system.
An initial trial of 1,077 people showed that the injection produced antibodies and white blood cells in patients.
The vaccine was “safe, tolerated, and immunogenic”, the study said, with a single dose eliciting a response to the virus.
It provoked a T cell response within 14 days of vaccination and an antibody response within 28 days.