A COVID-19 vaccine under development in England safely promotes an immune response against the virus, particularly in elderly recipients, a study published Thursday by The Lancet found.
Nov.18 (UPI) — A COVID-19 vaccine under development in England safely promotes an immune response against the virus, particularly in elderly recipients, a study published Thursday by The Lancet found. The study’s 560 healthy adult participants included 240 people over age 70, according to the researchers. That the vaccine was found to be safer in older adults than in younger people is significant, given they are at increased risk for severe illness from the new coronavirus, the researchers said. «The robust… responses seen in older people in our study are encouraging [because] the populations at greatest risk of serious COVID-19 disease include people with existing health conditions and older adults,» study co-author Dr Maheshi Ramasamy said in a press release. «We hope that this means our vaccine will help to protect some of the most vulnerable people in society, but further research will be needed before we can be sure,» said Ramasamy, a professor at the University of Oxford, which is leading the research. The so-called «Oxford vaccine,» formally known as ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 and developed in conjunction with drugmaker AstraZeneca, is one of more than 120 being evaluated in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. To date,48 of these vaccines have gotten into in clinical trials to assess their safety and effectiveness.
