UK may inject volunteers with coronavirus for vaccine trials: Report
London: Scientists in the UK are moving towards what are being referred to as challenge trials , which will involve healthy volunteers being deliberately infected with the novel coronavirus to test whether a vaccine offers any protection, according to a media report.
In the first trial of its kind expected to be formally announced next week, participants will be injected with an unnamed experimental vaccine and around a month later exposed to Sars-Cov-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, The Financial Times' reported.
The government-funded study is expected to begin in January, with the trials likely to take place in a large secure facility in Whitechapel in east London or nearby.
Around 2,000 potential volunteers have signed up for challenge studies in the UK through the US-based group 1Day Sooner, campaigning for COVID-19 trials, and are expected to be paid a few thousand pounds for signing up to the upcoming trials, according to the newspaper.
The project's academic leader is Imperial College London, and it will be run by hVivo, a spinout from Queen Mary University of London that was bought earlier this year by Open Orphan, a Ireland-based pharmaceutical research organisation.
Oxford University is also believed to be considering a similar "challenge trial" to test whether people have protective immunity from COVID-19 if they have been previously infected.
A government spokesperson said it is looking into collaborating on the potential development of a vaccine through human challenge studies.
Any trial that involves exposing people to the virus would need the approval of the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), as well as an independent research committee.
"The safety of trial participants is our top priority and any proposal from a developer to include a human infection challenge as part of a clinical trial for development of a vaccine would be considered on a benefit-risk basis, with risks monitored for and minimised in the proposed trial design," the MHRA said.
Dr Claire Waddington, clinical lecturer in infectious diseases at the University of Cambridge, said challenge trials are "well established as a way to accelerate the development of vaccines".
She pointed to similar trials being used for typhoid vaccines, which are now being rolled out in affected countries.
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Killing of Khamenei cynical violation of human morality, international law: Putin
Moscow (PTI): The killing of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was a cynical violation of all norms of human morality and international law, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared in his message to his Tehranian counterpart, the Kremlin said Sunday.
Khamenei was killed in an airstrike in Tehran on Saturday during a joint Israel-US attack on Iran.
“Please accept my deepest condolences in connection with the assassination of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Seyyed Ali Khamenei, and members of his family, committed in a cynical violation of all norms of human morality and international law,” Putin said in his condolence message.
Putin's condolence message to Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian was published on the Kremlin portal.
Earlier on Saturday, Russia condemned the US-Israeli joint strikes on Iran qualifying it as an “unprovoked” aggression against a sovereign state in violation of international law and called for immediate return to diplomacy.
The Russian Foreign Ministry also described the US and Israeli forces' strikes against the Iranian territory as “a pre-planned” act of aggression against an independent UN member state.
Putin also conducted an emergency meeting of the National Security Council online on Saturday to discuss the emerging situation following the US-Israeli strikes and Iran’s retaliation.
Meanwhile, according to reports more than 2,00,000 Russians are stuck in the region due to closure of their airspaces by Iran and Gulf countries.
The situation in the Middle East and the airport closures have affected not only organised tourists from Russia registered with tour operators, but also those travelling on business trips and independently, state-run TASS news agency reported.
“Approximately 2,00,000 people are unable to leave the UAE or return from vacations in the Maldives and other countries,” Alexey Volkov, president of the National Union of Hospitality Industry, told TASS.
UAE and its airports have become a main hub of access to Russia since the Ukraine conflict and closure of EU air space for civilian air traffic under sanction on Moscow.
“The situation remains complex and unpredictable: drone and missile strikes have hit key tourist locations in the UAE, including its most famous hotels.
“And then there are those who aren't counted as tourists at all, but are travelling around the world for business—the Middle East, for example, is currently a major business hub, home to a significant amount of Russian capital, investment, and business,” Volkov said.
