Vaccine test a shot in the arm for hopes of a coronavirus cure

US researchers have given the first shots to the first test subjects in the first trial of an experimental COVID-19 vaccine.

US test subject Neal Browning receives one of the first injections in a trial of a potential COVID-19 vaccine in Seattle. Picture: AP

US researchers have given the first shots to the first test subjects in the first trial of an experimental COVID-19 vaccine, leading off a worldwide hunt for protection even as the pandemic surges.

With careful jabs in the arms of four healthy volunteers, scientists at the Kaiser Permanente Washington Research Institute in Seattle began an anxiously awaited first-stage study of a potential COVID-19 vaccine, developed in record time after the new virus exploded out of China and fanned across the globe.

“We’re all Team Coronavirus now,” Kaiser Permanente study leader Lisa Jackson said on the eve of the experiment. “Everyone wants to do what they can in this emergency.”

The study’s first participant, an operations manager at a small tech company, received the injection in an examination room. “We all feel so helpless; this is an amazing opportunity for me to do something,” said Jennifer Haller, 43, of Seattle before being vaccinated.

Her two teenagers “think it’s cool” that she’s taking part in the study. After the injection, she left the exam room with a big smile, declaring: “I’m feeling great.”

Three others were next in line for a test that will ultimately give 45 volunteers two doses, a month apart. Neal Browning, 46, of Bothell, Washington, is a Microsoft network engineer who says his young daughters are proud that he volunteered.

“Every parent wants their children to look up to them,” he said. But he told them not to brag to their friends. “It’s other people, too. It’s not just Dad out there.”

Tuesday’s milestone marked just the beginning of a series of human studies that are needed to prove whether the shots are safe and could work. And even if the ­study were a success, a vaccine would not be available for widespread use for 12 to 18 months, said Anthony Fauci of the US National Institutes of Health.

At a news conference, President Donald Trump praised how quickly the research had progressed. Dr Fauci noted that 65 days had passed since Chinese scientists shared the virus’s genetic sequence. He said he believed that was a record for developing a ­vaccine to test.

This vaccine candidate, codenamed mRNA-1273, was developed by the National Institutes of Health and Massachusetts-based biotech company Moderna. There is no chance that the participants will get infected because the vaccine injections do not contain the coronavirus itself.

It’s not the only potential ­vaccine in the pipeline. Dozens of research groups around the world, including a team from the ­University of Queensland, are ­racing to create a vaccine against COVID-19.

Another candidate, made by Inovio Pharmaceuticals, is expected to begin its own safety study next month in the US, China and South Korea.

The Seattle experiment got under way days after the World Health Organisation declared the new virus outbreak a pandemic because of its rapid global spread, which has so far infected more than 169,000 people and killed more than 6500.

AP