Chinese COVID-19 vaccine trial also touts immune response

Chinese researchers publish a study on their experimental COVID-19 vaccine in the Lancet on Monday, using a similar technique as the Oxford scientists. They report that in their study of about 500 people, an immune response was detected in those who were immunized. But they note that because the participants weren’t exposed to the coronavirus afterwards, it wasn’t possible to tell if they were protected from the disease.

CanSino Biologics’ vaccine is made similarly to Oxford’s except the Chinese shot is made with a human cold virus, and the study showed people whose bodies recognized it didn’t get as much of the presumed COVID-19 benefit. Still, China’s government already gave special approval for the military to use CanSino’s vaccine while it explores final-stage studies.

In an accompanying editorial, Naor Bar-Zeev and William Moss of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health call both the Oxford and Chinese results “encouraging” but said further judgment should wait until the vaccine is tested on much bigger populations.

Bar-Zeev and Moss also call for any effective COVID-19 vaccine to be distributed equitably around the world.

“Global planning is underway, but should be underpinned and informed by specific local realities,” they write. “Only this way can these very encouraging first early-phase randomized trial results yield the global remedy for which we all yearn.”

— AP