Oxford COVID-19 vaccine showing progress

Oxford’s COVID-19 vaccine that is backed by AstraZeneca is reportedly generating “the kind of antibody and T-cell (killer cell) response that the researchers would hope to see,” Robert Peston, ITV News’ political editor, wrote on Wednesday. “As I understand, not all of the many vaccines under development across the world increase both antibodies and T-cells. But the Oxford vaccine looks as though it has this twin effect,” Peston added. “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. Risk-on flows continue to dominate financial markets on Wednesday. As of writing, major equity indexes in Europe were up between 0.95% and 1.2% and the S&P 500 were gaining 0.8% on the day.