The Thin End

Scientists across the globe are searching for a vaccine against the virus that causes COVID-19.  Let's applaud them too. A vaccine for the COVID-19 virus is still said to be 'a long way off' with best estimates being early next year.    The first potential vaccine entered clinical trials on 16th March 2020.  Vaccines cannot be conjured with a magic wand. Ordinarily, vaccines can take up to ten years to produce. The first Ebola vaccine took five years, and that was considered fast. The imperative is now to find a COVID-19 vaccine a lot faster.   Teams across the world a working flat out developing and testing possible agents. One reason it usually takes so long is what is termed the attrition rate - that is, the number of potential vaccines that don't make it through trials. The failures could be hundreds.  Safety and effectiveness are of paramount importance, and that means rigorous testing. The production of a vaccine isn't what we see in t...

There is some good news on the horizon.  The government might meet its target of 100,000 tests for COVID-19 by the end of the month. Testing is vital to bringing us all out of lockdown, getting people back to work, and gradually returning to normality. The US company producing the tests here in the UK has ramped up the facilities for its manufacture.  But initially, the tests will be for the antigen, indicating whether someone has got the virus.  We also need to test for the presence of antibodies, showing whether someone has had the infection and has developed an immunity. Meeting the testing target offers hope that the lockdown can be released gradually, perhaps first, with those who have recovered from the virus. Slowly, people can get back to work, getting the economy moving once again and critically enabling key health workers to return to the frontline. One thing the lockdown has demonstrated is just who our key workers really are.  The many we...