There is cause for optimism in the United States as government officials in the Trump Administration indicated over the weekend that a clinical trial for an experimental COVID-19 vaccine will begin this week in highly affected Seattle.
True to their word, the first clinical trialfor a vaccine to protect against the new coronavirus was conducted on Monday to a healthy volunteer in Seattle.
According to a report tests will be hitting the nation all this week and will begin with 45 young, healthy volunteers with different doses of shots co-developed by the National Institute of Health (NIH) and Moderna Inc. While the experiment al vaccine does not contain the virus itself, there is no chance that the participants could get infected from the shots they will receive.
The objective goal for the clinical tests is to check that the vaccine does not show any worrisome side effects thereby setting the stage for larger tests. However, public health officials have indicated that it could take a year up to 18 months to fully validate any potential vaccine.
Research groups around the world are in a race to create a potent COVID-19 vaccine to stem the exponential spread of the virus.
