As we draw nearer to the end of the year our struggle with the novel coronavirus however is far from over yet. Outbreaks are driving up worldwide with governments bracing themselves for their second and third waves of the lethal disease. In the latest reports, however, there may be one ray of hope for the world as one of the leading coronavirus vaccine experiments reveal successful trials.
AstraZeneca and Oxford University’s coronavirus vaccine has been one on everybody’s radar, now however recent reports show that it is successful in inspiring an immune response is not only the bodies of young adults but also older adults. This is promising because older adults are usually the most seriously affected by the lethal virus.
The development in this long-awaited vaccine raises hopes that there may be a path out of this global misery after all.
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The vaccine developed by the University of Oxford also brings forth less adverse reactions in elderly adults, according to the drug-making company, AstraZeneca’s statements that were given on Monday.
If a vaccine manages to be successful against the looming threat of the novel coronavirus, it would be nothing short of a miracle since the virus alone has been the cause of death for above 1.15 million people, if that isn’t enough it has also brought down the global economy significantly and made life unimaginably different for millions of people.
A spokesperson for AstraZeneca explained that it was important for the vaccine developers to see whether the responses in older bodies were the same as recorded in younger ones, they also checked for vaccine reactions in older adults and made sure that they were low enough to be seen as safe.
The results so far are backed by a good body of evidence that suggests the vaccine is safe to use and that it encourages a positive immune response in the body.
Currently, AstraZeneca has not confirmed any details to back the statement that was made by the spokesperson or which date it will release and publish the data for late-stage phase 3 of the trials. This is important data because it will show whether the vaccine is successful against the virus and that it works well enough in large scale environments to be handed out to the general public.
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Among the big pharmaceutical companies racing to secure a successful vaccine, the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine however is currently on its way to perhaps be the very first to gain regulatory approval alongside the vaccine candidate by Pfizer and BioNTech’s vaccine candidate.
The immune system in old people becomes weaker with age therefore the virus proves the most lethal for older age groups that are known to have a lowered immune system response to diseases. This is perhaps the strongest reason why the Oxford/AstraZeneca proves as a strong candidate because it is able to make older adults produce an immune system response which is one of the most difficult tasks in vaccine development currently for a disease like COVID-19.
If the coronavirus vaccine is confirmed to work as planned the world perhaps may have a chance again at leading the life we had before the pandemic turned our lives upside down.
