Progress in Oxford's Covid vaccine: Expert's

• Scientists at Oxford University are developing a vaccine for the novel coronavirus
• First results of a recent animal trial of the vaccine were posted on Wednesday
• Results showed that "ChAdOx1 nCoV-19" vaccine has been effective in preventing damage to lungs

The scientists at Oxford University's Jenner Institute, who are developing a vaccine for the novel coronavirus have passed an important hurdle. First results of a recent animal trial of the promising coronavirus vaccine from Oxford University were posted on Wednesday.

The pre-print results showed that the "ChAdOx1 nCoV-19" vaccine has been effective in preventing damage to the lungs without any signs of immune-enhanced diseases. Six monkeys were infected with a high dose of SARS-CoV-2, the virus which causes the Covid-19. As on May 13, more than 1000 volunteers have already participated in human clinical trails of this vaccine.

Independent experts have lauded the results and noted that even though the human clinical trials are already in progress, the results of this study is good news.

"The most important finding to me is the combination of considerable efficacy in terms of viral load and subsequent pneumonia, but no evidence of immune-enhanced disease, which has been a concern for vaccines in general, for example with vaccines against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and for SARS vaccines," Prof Stephen Evans, Professor of Pharmacoepidemiology, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said.

Experts believe that one of the biggest challenges with vaccines against the coronavirus species is the "potential for antibody-dependent enhancement of the disease", which has been one reason for the lack of a vaccine against the 2003 SARS CoV strain.

"It is helpful to see that monkeys vaccinated with this SARS CoV2 vaccine did not have any evidence of enhanced lung pathology and that, despite some evidence of upper respiratory tract infection by SARS COV2 after high viral load virus challenge, monkeys given the vaccine did not have any evidence of pneumonia," Dr Penny Ward, Visiting Professor in Pharmaceutical Medicine at King's College London said.

Spanish woman aged 113 years survives coronavirus

113-year-old woman, believed to be the oldest person living in Spain, has beaten the coronavirus at a retirement home where several other residents died from the disease, the residence said Tuesday.

Maria Branyas, who was born in the US, became infected in April at the Santa Maria del Tura care home in the eastern city of Olot, where she has lived for the past 20 years, and fought the respiratory illness off in isolation in her room.

"She survived the disease and is doing fine," a spokeswoman for the residence told AFP, adding Branyas had only displayed mild symptoms.

"She feels good now, she took a test last week and the result was negative," the spokeswoman said without giving further details.

Branyas, a mother of three, was isolated in her room for weeks, with only a single employee in protective gear allowed in to check on her, according to Catalan regional television TV3.

The care home has recorded "several" virus-related deaths during the pandemic, the spokeswoman for the residence said.

She was born on March 4, 1907 in San Francisco where her father, who was from northern Spain, worked as a journalist.

Branyas moved to Spain with her family on a boat during World War I and also lived through the Spanish flu pandemic that swept the world in 1918-19 as well as Spain's 1936-39 civil war.

Spain has been one of the worst affected countries in the pandemic, with nearly 27,000 COVID-19 deaths confirmed so far, according to health ministry figures.

The elderly are especially vulnerable and in Spain as in other European countries the coronavirus has claimed many victims among seniors living in retirement homes.

The coronavirus that caused the 2003 SARS epidemic disappeared mysteriously over time but

Some people question why the current coronavirus has brought the world to standstill while a previous deadly coronavirus SARS did not.

SARS, which killed about 1 in every 10 people turned out to be highly lethal but ultimately, and somewhat mysteriously, disappeared.

The tale of SARS and its new cousin that causes Covid-19, SARS-CoV-2, shows just how unpredictable viruses can be, particularly when they jump from animals to humans.

SARS was first noted in Guangdong province in China in November of 2002, when doctors there saw an unusual pneumonia. But the disease was not reported to the World Health Organisation at that time. In February 2003, another outbreak occurred in Hanoi, Vietnam, and a World Health Organisation officer, who later died, examined a patient there and reported a large outbreak to the WHO main office on March 10, 2003.

Meanwhile, a doctor from Guangdong province travelled to Hong Kong and stayed at the Metropol Hotel along with a number of other international travelers. The doctor was infected with what we now know as SARS-CoV-1. The virus was transmitted to at least a dozen other hotel guests.

Two returned to Canada and took the virus there. One returned to Ireland, one to the United States. Three went to Singapore and one to Vietnam. In addition, a few people were hospitalised in Hong Kong, leading to an outbreak in the hospital there.

In all there were just over 8,000 cases of SARS-CoV-1, and about 700 deaths. In the United States, there were a total of just 29 confirmed cases and no deaths. The Hong Kong economy, with a large tourism component, was severely impacted by SARS in 2003, much as the US tourism industry is currently one of the most heavily impacted parts of the economy due to SARS-CoV-2.

SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 are closely related viruses. Scientists believe that both viruses originated in bats. The RNA genomes of the viruses are about 80% identical. What does that mean? Our own genomes are over 98% identical to those of chimpanzees, so 80% seems a lot less similar. For a virus though, especially one with an RNA genome, this is actually very closely related.

Tracking someone infected with the SARS-CoV-1 was relatively easy: Everyone had severe symptoms in two to three days.

With SARS-CoV-2, it takes about two weeks for symptoms to appear, and many people don’t have any symptoms at all. Imagine asking someone whom they had contact with for the last two weeks! You can accurately remember most people you had contact with for the past two days, but two weeks? This critical tool for pandemic control is very challenging to implement. This means that the only safe thing to do is to maintain quarantine of everyone until the pandemic is under control.

SARS vaccine? Vaccine studies for SARS-CoV-1 were started and tested in animal models. An inactivated whole virus was used in ferrets, nonhuman primates and mice. All of the vaccines resulted in protective immunity, but there were complications; the vaccines resulted in an immune disease in animals. No human studies were done, nor were the vaccine studies taken further because the virus disappeared.

Many factors were involved in the end of SARS-CoV-1, perhaps including summer weather, mutations, and certainly strict quarantine of all those who had contact with infected individuals, but we don’t really know why the epidemic ended. Viruses are like that – unpredictable.