The first human trial of a vaccine against novel coronavirus (COVID-19) begins

Clinical trials for a vaccine against the novel coronavirus are on at
Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute, Seattle.
The human trials will involving 45 healthy volunteers, aged 18-55 years, will be conducted over 6 weeks. The study will evaluate doses of the experimental vaccine mRNA-1273 for safety and ability to induce immune response. It has been co-developed by National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and biotech firm Moderna Inc. Prior studies of related coronaviruses that causes. SARS* and MERS* helped speed up the process (*Severe acute respiratory syndrome *Middle East respiratory syndrome). The vaccine has shown promise on animal models. Currently there is no vaccine to protect against COVID-19. The WHO estimates that 200-300 studies are being conducted to find one.