Enlarge / MOSCOW, RUSSIA – SEPTEMBER 4, 2020: Medical workers with newly delivered containers containing COVID-19 vaccine in a chilly room at No2 Outpatient Clinic in southern Moscow. (credit score: Stanislav Krasilnikov / Getty Photographs)
Russia has been one of many international locations hit exhausting by the COVID-19 pandemic. However its response to that has been a bit… uncommon. As many different international locations have, Russia labored to develop its personal vaccine. However whereas that growth was nonetheless in progress, it introduced that it wasn’t going to attend for detailed security information, as a substitute rolling the vaccine out to hundreds of thousands. Shortly afterwards, it grew to become clear that the nation was really going to run a typical part three scientific trial, albeit a big one, involving 40,000 folks.
It was exhausting to evaluate whether or not any of this was cheap, as a result of few particulars concerning the vaccine itself had been out there. However that modified considerably on Friday, because the individuals who developed the vaccine printed outcomes from the preliminary scientific trials. And to date, it appears to be about as efficient as a number of the different vaccine candidates which have been made it previous preliminary trials.
Two viruses higher than one?
As our earlier protection talked about, the vaccine consists of two totally different engineered viruses. These comprise the spine of an innocuous virus, referred to as an adenovirus, engineered to incorporate the gene that encodes the foremost floor protein from the SARS-CoV-2 virus. This protein, referred to as Spike, is what the coronavirus makes use of to latch on to and enter cells. Using adenovirus permits the immune system to study to acknowledge the Spike protein whereas the physique solely experiences a innocent adenovirus an infection.
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