The University of Oxford's Jenner Institute made waves last week when U.K. Health Minister Matt Hancock announced a team is starting trials on a potential coronavirus vaccine of which there could be a million doses by September, which is, in vaccine terms, incredibly fast. There's still a long way to go before determining if the vaccine is viable, but The New York Times reports there's promising news that it may be both safe and effective.
Scientists at the National Institute of Health's Rocky Mountain Laboratory in Montana tested the Oxford vaccine on six rhesus macaques monkeys. The monkeys were exposed to heavy quantities of the coronavirus, an amount that had previously sickened other monkeys in the lab, before receiving a single dose of the vaccine. More than four weeks later all six monkeys were healthy, Dr. Vincent Munster, the researcher who conducted the test, told the Times. That doesn't mean it will work the same way in humans, but Munster noted the rhesus macaque is "pretty much the closest thing we have to humans," so the results are at least promising.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Today's political cartoons - December 22, 2024Cartoons Sunday's cartoons - the long and short of it, trigger finger, and more
-
5 hilariously spirited cartoons about the spirit of ChristmasCartoons Artists take on excuses, pardons, and more
-
Inside the house of AssadThe Explainer Bashar al-Assad and his father, Hafez, ruled Syria for more than half a century but how did one family achieve and maintain power?
-
Marty Makary: the medical contrarian who will lead the FDAIn the Spotlight What Johns Hopkins surgeon and commentator Marty Makary will bring to the FDA
-
California declares bird flu emergencySpeed Read The emergency came hours after the nation's first person with severe bird flu infection was hospitalized
-
Bird flu one mutuation from human threat, study findsSpeed Read A Scripps Research Institute study found one genetic tweak of the virus could enable its spread among people
-
Dark chocolate tied to lower diabetes riskSpeed Read The findings were based on the diets of about 192,000 US adults over 34 years
-
ACA opens 2025 enrollment, enters 2024 raceSpeed Read Mike Johnson promises big changes to the Affordable Care Act if Trump wins the election
-
McDonald's sued over E. coli linked to burgerSpeed Read The outbreak has sickened at least 49 people in 10 states and left one dead
-
Long Covid: study shows damage to brain's 'control centre'The Explainer Research could help scientists understand long-term effects of Covid-19 as well as conditions such as MS and dementia
-
FDA OKs new Covid vaccine, available soonSpeed read The CDC recommends the new booster to combat the widely-circulating KP.2 strain
