A coronavirus vaccine would provide the ultimate assurance against COVID-19, allowing people to venture outdoors without fear for the first time in months. The scientific community is working rapidly to provide the world with a workable solution, but experts estimate it will take months to produce.
How close is the UK to a vaccine?
Scientists and academic institutions have made promising progress on the vaccine front, with several countries deep in the throes of development.
On Monday, the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced it had identified eight leading candidates to produce a coronavirus vaccine worldwide.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus clarified there are more than 100 candidates in total, most of which have sped forwards with backing from world leaders and other organisations.
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While Dr Ghebreyesus would not identify any of the leading centres, but Boris Johnson said he was hopeful the UK was at the forefront.
Oxford University is currently leading the nationwide vaccine efforts, and human trials started at the end of April.
Their sample, ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, uses a combination of a common cold virus and genetic material from other related viruses.
Scientists with the university suggest results from the trials alone would take six months, and if successful a full vaccine could take more than a year.
While the world awaits the results with bated breath, health professionals have built a live-tracker to monitor vaccine progress.
Specialists with Practio, a travel vaccination clinic based in Portsmouth, have constructed a resource hub to keep up with the latest vaccine development research.
Practio’s hub keeps tabs on the latest progress in vaccine development and comes with a timer to identify how far away it is.
The first of its kind for the UK, the hub is updated every two to three days, using information from news articles and medical journals, and splits the progress into distinct stages.
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The timer is currently set at 12 to 13 months and is on stage three of six.
The full hub also lists the companies currently working to produce a vaccine and potential alternatives.
Dr Jonas Nilsen MD, a Danish medical doctor and co-founder of Practio, spearheaded the hub and said he aimed to reduce the “complex” process of vaccine development for the general public.
He said: “We explain each stage of the vaccine development, so people can get a better understanding of the process.”
“Developing a vaccine is complicated and few are providing complex explanations, which means important information is being missed out.
“Practio aims to simplify overly technical explanations so everyone can follow and understand what is really happening.”
People visiting the page can sign up to Practio’s newsletter for regular updates on vaccine progress in the UK and elsewhere.
The hub also fulfils calls from the public for increased updates on COVID-19 research, as Imperial College London found 47 percent of 420 people wanted regular briefings.
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