A major trial of a Covid vaccine has launched in the UK – the third such trial in the country.
Designed by the Belgian company, Janssen, it uses a genetically modified common cold virus to train the immune system.
The research team is trying to recruit 6,000 people in the UK. Other countries will join the effort to bring the total up to 30,000.
Half of the volunteers will be given two doses of the vaccine around two months apart.
Janssen already has one large-scale trial of its vaccine in which volunteers get one dose. This trial will see if two gives a stronger and longer-lasting immunity.
It could take six to nine months before the results are available.
The Janssen trial begins after a vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech caused global excitement last week, when preliminary results showed it offered 90% protection.
The Pfizer vaccine has not yet been approved for use and Health Secretary Matt Hancock says the “vast bulk” of it will be distributed in the new year.
He told BBC Breakfast the NHS was getting ready to distribute some doses from 1 December but that was “the earliest it could possibly come” and “everything would have to go right” for the process to begin that early.
The PM says he feels well and that vaccine distribution could start “perhaps before Christmas”.
