Last Updated on March 16, 2020
The world’s first coronavirus vaccine was to be tested on a person today, March 16, in Seattle; but, according to a report, if it is safe, it could still take a year for the vaccine to be available worldwide as the spread of the deadly Covid-19 claims hundreds of lives on a daily basis.
According to The Daily Mail, 45 patients between the ages of 18-55, who do not suffer from the Covid-19 coronavirus have offered themselves to receive the shot to make sure it is safe.
The test, funded by The National Institutes of Health and co-created by Massachusetts-based Moderna, will be taking place in the heavily-affected Seattle.
The current test, at the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute in Seattle, promises that if the injection proves to be safe, further trials will take place.
The test subjects will not be infected with Covid-19 at this time–the first jabs will not contain the coronavirus, but will be trialed to ensure that they are safe.
The current vaccine contains a protein similar to the coronavirus to see how the immune system reacts and fights off the pathogen.
China previously experimented with HIV drugs to combat the coronavirus.
Multiple universities, pharmaceutical companies, and even the US government have worked tirelessly to produce a vaccine for the coronavirus, which has put several countries on lock-down and claimed over 6,500 lives.
Currently, 35 experimental vaccines are being developed around the world.
The Daily Mail reported that leading officials have signaled that, if a vaccine were to be synthesized, it could take around a year to eighteen months for it to be available on a global scale, which has drawn attention to the potential number of casualties in the meantime.