Covid-19 vaccine trial brings SA great hope as virus storm intensifies - Prof Martin Veller

There are nearly 150 vaccines under development in the world for Covid-19. The frontrunner at the moment is the vaccine that is being developed by the Jenner Institute at Oxford University, which is being trialled in humans in the United Kingdom. AstraZeneca, which is producing the vaccine for the university, is so confident it will work that it has started beefing up production to have available 100 million doses in October. One of the concerns about the development of vaccines is that countries like South Africa will be at the back of the queue. South Africa has, however, now been given the opportunity to trial the Oxford Covid-19 vaccine. The University of the Witwatersrand started human trials this week. The Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of the Witwatersrand, Prof Martin Veller told Biznews about the importance of trials in African populations and gave a sobering assessment of the timeline for vaccines and how our health services will cope with the rapid increase in coronavirus cases that the country is experiencing. – Linda van Tilburg