Beijing: Chinese researchers published a study on their experimental COVID-19 vaccine in the Lancet on Monday, using a similar technique as the Oxford scientists.
They reported that in their study of about 500 people, an immune response was detected in those who were immunized. But they noted that because the participants weren't exposed to the coronavirus afterward, it wasn't possible to tell if they were protected from the disease.
China’s government already gave special approval for the military to use CanSino’s vaccine while it explores final-stage studies.
Read also: UK COVID-19 vaccine prompts immune response in early test
In an accompanying editorial, Naor Bar-Zeev and William Moss of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health called both the Oxford and Chinese results “encouraging" but said further judgment should wait until the vaccine is tested on much bigger populations.
Bar-Zeev and Moss also called for any effective COVID-19 vaccine to be distributed equitably around the world.
“Global planning is underway, but should be underpinned and informed by specific local realities,” they wrote. “Only this way can these very encouraging first earlyphase randomised trial results yield the global remedy for which we all yearn.”
Last week, American researchers announced that the first COVID-19 vaccine tested there boosted people’s immune systems just as scientists had hoped and the shots will now enter the final phase of testing.
That vaccine, developed by the National Institutes of Health and Moderna, produced the molecules key to blocking infection in volunteers who got it, at levels comparable to people who survived a COVID-19 infection.
The vaccine being developed by Pfizer also works to trigger a similar dual immune response as the Oxford shot. Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech also released an encouraging Phase 1 report Monday.
Nearly two dozen potential vaccines are in various stages of human testing worldwide, with a handful entering necessary late-stage testing to prove effectiveness.
AP
