Speaker 1: Welcome to Prognosis. I'm Laura Carlson. It's day fifty six
Speaker 1: since coronavirus was declared a global pandemic. Our main story.
Speaker 1: The world is watching closely as drug companies rates to
Speaker 1: make a vaccine at warp speed. What does that race
Speaker 1: actually look like? Close up? A participant in one of
Speaker 1: the earliest vaccine clinical trials tells us what he's learning.
Speaker 1: But first, here's what happened today. President Donald Trump says
Speaker 1: the US must reopen for business, even if more Americans
Speaker 1: get sick and die. The president said at an event
Speaker 1: in Arizona that he knows restarting state economies will cause
Speaker 1: more illness and death from the pandemic, but insists it's
Speaker 1: a cost he's willing to pay to get the economy
Speaker 1: back on track. As governors across the South and Midwest
Speaker 1: have begun returning people to work, Trump said he's pivoting
Speaker 1: to phase two of the nation's response to the pandemic.
Speaker 1: Phase two originally included disbanding the White House Coronavirus Task Force,
Speaker 1: something the White House said in statements Tuesday it was
Speaker 1: considering doing, but today Trump reversed himself, saying the task
Speaker 1: force will continue indefinitely. In a series of tweets this morning,
Speaker 1: the President said the task force will continue with a
Speaker 1: focus on reopening the country, as well as the development
Speaker 1: of vaccines and therapeutic treatments. Des Trump's desire to hasten
Speaker 1: the end of lockdown rules and analysis by Bloomberg News
Speaker 1: found that many states are doing so before they're ready,
Speaker 1: even by Trump's own standards. Twenty states that have already
Speaker 1: lifted restrictions don't meet the guidelines for reopening that were
Speaker 1: set out by the White House last month. Many are
Speaker 1: moving ahead with reopening businesses despite not having declining cases,
Speaker 1: a declining percentage of positive tests, or hospital systems that
Speaker 1: can withstand the strain of an outbreak. The UK is
Speaker 1: likely to start easing it's coronavirus lockdown starting Monday, according
Speaker 1: to Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Johnson promised to announce details
Speaker 1: this weekend. Johnson said he will set out the next
Speaker 1: phase of the coronavirus strategy in a public statement on Sunday,
Speaker 1: because it would be a good thing if people know
Speaker 1: what to expect before they changes come into operation the
Speaker 1: next day and now our main story, dozens of research
Speaker 1: teams across the world are racing to deliver a vaccine
Speaker 1: for the coronavirus. People around the world are closely watching
Speaker 1: the race because they see a vaccine as the key
Speaker 1: to allowing the world to return to something like normal. Developing, testing,
Speaker 1: and bringing a vaccine to market is a process that
Speaker 1: usually takes years, even decades, but that process is being
Speaker 1: ramped up to superspeed as the virus ravages the globe.
Speaker 1: Some have promised we may see something as soon as
Speaker 1: the end of this year. Most medical experts believe that's
Speaker 1: highly unlikely, but the races on a small group of volunteers.
Speaker 1: It's already receiving an experimental vaccine. Jason Gale spoke to
Speaker 1: one of the first to get a dose. He gives
Speaker 1: us a peek inside the fast moving world of coronavirus
Speaker 1: vaccine development. When the University of Oxford recently sought volunteers
Speaker 1: to test an experimental coronavirus vaccine, thousands signed up. Another
Speaker 1: Australian was one of the first two people to roll
Speaker 1: up their sleeve for the shot. I am Dr Edward O'Neill,
Speaker 1: a post doctoral researcher in the Department of Oncology at
Speaker 1: the University of Oxford. Not a medical doctor, but a scientist,
Speaker 1: and I'm a trial participant of the COVID nineteen vaccine.
Speaker 1: It is thirty. He lives in Oxford, where he's doing
Speaker 1: post doctoral research on nuking cancer with radiation. He heard
Speaker 1: about the COVID nineteen vaccine study in an email from
Speaker 1: the Universe City. He discussed the risks with his wife
Speaker 1: and decided to give it a go. It turns out
Speaker 1: he was lucky to get in. I myself am one
Speaker 1: of over five thousand people who wanted to actually join
Speaker 1: the study, so they actually had to stop enrollment. So
Speaker 1: it's not for lack of willing volunteers. Everyone wanted to
Speaker 1: be a part of this. It was an overwhelming vote
Speaker 1: of confidence in the experimental vaccine, but also in the
Speaker 1: track record of Oxford's Jenna Institute. The center was named
Speaker 1: after Edward Jenner, a pioneer of immunization. I think eighteenth
Speaker 1: century dairy maids and cow pox. Fast forward two years,
Speaker 1: and vaccines have come a long way since Jenner made
Speaker 1: his inoculation against smallpox. I was familiar with the generous
Speaker 1: aitute because it was just was just fascinated to hear
Speaker 1: about what's going on and we would actually get lots
Speaker 1: of Facebook guards asking us to fox sign up for
Speaker 1: other trials as well. Um, it's common for them to
Speaker 1: actually the investigating other diseases because they haven't been primarily
Speaker 1: just working on the stars. The generous that you actually
Speaker 1: had a number of vaccines was developing. These included a
Speaker 1: vaccine against malaria, but more important one to fight another coronavirus.
Speaker 1: It's the one that causes Mer's or Middle East respiratory syndrome.
Speaker 1: That virus made the leap from camels to humans several
Speaker 1: years ago and has infected about two and a half
Speaker 1: thousand people, mostly in the Middle East. It's lethal in
Speaker 1: about a third of cases, but isn't as easily transmitted
Speaker 1: between people as the coronavirus that causes COVID nineteen. Importantly,
Speaker 1: Oxford's experimental MERS vaccine has already been tested in people.
Speaker 1: Oxford researchers reported in the lance At Medical Journal last
Speaker 1: month that the vaccine was safe, well tolerated, and that
Speaker 1: a single dose could elicit a broad protective immune response
Speaker 1: against the MERS virus. Ed says it's quaidest decision to
Speaker 1: participate in the COVID vaccine study because the two vaccines
Speaker 1: are very similar. Um, I didn't think it was going
Speaker 1: to be um any particular risk because I was confident
Speaker 1: based upon the science. It's being based upon a known
Speaker 1: mers vaccine that I've already developed an already trial it.
Speaker 1: And I also thought would be really interesting experience to
Speaker 1: see the patient perspective on the clinical trials. And so
Speaker 1: at some point if you trial keen to have some
Speaker 1: of my research progress to a clinical trial, so I say,
Speaker 1: I wanted to see what that would be like as well.
Speaker 1: So what was it like getting the JAB? Being a
Speaker 1: volunteer means that they firstly have to you have to
Speaker 1: meet the criteria just by an online questionnaire, and then
Speaker 1: they bring you in. If you meet the criteria that
Speaker 1: you're eligible for the study, and they want to do
Speaker 1: a full medical to make sure that you're it and
Speaker 1: healthy and also willing to take part. That you can
Speaker 1: travel to their for regular blood tears after the vaccination,
Speaker 1: and then they will call you up if you're eligible.
Speaker 1: I only found out maybe like a week before the
Speaker 1: actual injection. It involves a lot of care, a lot
Speaker 1: of paperwork to make sure that they have healthy volunteers first,
Speaker 1: and then the end goal is to actually then enroll
Speaker 1: older people, but first we have to figure out what
Speaker 1: works and healthy young people to then figure out if
Speaker 1: older people can also create an immunity using the vaccine
Speaker 1: that is sufficient to protect them as well. So that's
Speaker 1: there the most vulnerable groups, so we're targeting that will
Speaker 1: the end goal. It has no idea whether he was
Speaker 1: randomly selected to receive the candidate COVID vaccine or a
Speaker 1: control shot that protects against manager cockal disease. The study
Speaker 1: will look to see whether COVID was less common in
Speaker 1: participants who got the experimental shot versus the control I mean,
Speaker 1: there's the chance that I have the coronavirus that could
Speaker 1: easily have got the control vaccine, but I feel perfectly fine.
Speaker 1: But it's more important that I mean, i'm I'm I'm
Speaker 1: only one person as well that this trial has expanded
Speaker 1: to many, many people, and so now they're giving daily
Speaker 1: temperature checks and daily symptoms sort of diary that's uploaded
Speaker 1: every evening so that the study can know what's happening
Speaker 1: with all the patients. The sad fact is is that
Speaker 1: there's an outbreak and that's quite prevalent in the uk
Speaker 1: UM and I think that Unfortunately, it's going to be
Speaker 1: statistically likely that that's what they're counting on, that members
Speaker 1: of the study will get infected, and hopefully it will
Speaker 1: be the control group that actually have symptoms versus the
Speaker 1: the Canada group. It says gauging the effect means a
Speaker 1: lot of blood tests, so they are very interested in
Speaker 1: a scientific analysis of the vaccine. They don't just give
Speaker 1: you a shot and then send you off in the world.
Speaker 1: They want to follow how your body is responding to it.
Speaker 1: If all goes as planned, research is running the trial
Speaker 1: so they'll have preliminary data to tell if it works
Speaker 1: by September. Regardless, productions ramping up on the assumption that
Speaker 1: it will work, so they'll have enough vaccine to use
Speaker 1: in a larger clinical study. At least a half a
Speaker 1: dozen vaccine candidates have entered human studies, including an experimental
Speaker 1: shop being developed by the National Institutes of Health and
Speaker 1: Massachusetts based Maderna That trial started in March. Vaccine research
Speaker 1: is being accelerated, but it says he sees no corners
Speaker 1: being cut. I have a fear that people might be
Speaker 1: concerned about the vaccine, that it's maybe being rushed. We
Speaker 1: know that there was one vaccine that's already injected in America.
Speaker 1: But I know that this one has been as cautious
Speaker 1: and as quick as it possibly could. In the Oxford
Speaker 1: study had to do the animal trials non human primates
Speaker 1: before that was their design to be as cautious as possible,
Speaker 1: but as fast as possible. UM, So they had a headstart,
Speaker 1: it says he likes being part of the race to
Speaker 1: produce a safe and effective vaccine against the coronavirus. I
Speaker 1: think a vaccine is the safe this way to develop
Speaker 1: a herd immunity response that we can therefore protect our
Speaker 1: friends and family and the people in the street. We
Speaker 1: don't even know. Um. What we've found with this coronavirus
Speaker 1: in particular compared to the Merse and the First Stars
Speaker 1: outbreak is that it was they were very intense diseases,
Speaker 1: but this one has a lot of unsybdematic carriers. It
Speaker 1: doesn't mean that it's not a nasty disease. It has
Speaker 1: terrible side effects and terrible effects that we're still learning
Speaker 1: about the long term effects. So I think vaccine is
Speaker 1: the safest way to have her community that we can
Speaker 1: then introduce to the population. It's a goal that dozens
Speaker 1: of research teams across the world are pursuing well each
Speaker 1: is vine to be first. They're also competing with the
Speaker 1: fast spreading pandemic that each and every one of us
Speaker 1: has a stake in. Ending. Researchers say that solidarity is
Speaker 1: driving a global effort that's resulting in an unprecedented spirit
Speaker 1: of collaboration. That was Bloomberg's Jason Gail, and that's our
Speaker 1: show today. For coverage of the outbreak from one D
Speaker 1: and twenty bureaus around the world, visit bloomberg dot com
Speaker 1: slash coronavirus and if you like the show, please leave
Speaker 1: us a review and a rating on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
Speaker 1: It's the best way to help more listeners find our
Speaker 1: global reporting. The Prognosis Daily edition is hosted by Me
Speaker 1: Laura Carlson. The show was produced by Me Topher foreheads,
Speaker 1: Jordan Gospoure and Magnus Hendrickson. Today's main story was reported
Speaker 1: by Jason Gail. Original music by Leo Sidrin. Our editors
Speaker 1: are Francesco Levi and Rick Shine. Francesco Levi is Bloomberg's
Speaker 1: head of Podcasts. Thanks for listening.