Brazil Selected For First COVID-19 Vaccine Trial By Oxford University

Brazil will be the first nation to observe the testing of COVID-19 vaccine developed by Oxford University in the U.K.

Oxford’s COVID-19 vaccine will be first administered to about 2000 carefully selected frontline workers fighting against the coronavirus pandemic. The trial is expected to kickstart in Sao Paulo this month.

The coronavirus vaccine trials in Brazi are being financed by the Lemann Foundation. The executive director of the foundation, Denis Mizne, said that it is “an important milestone” for Brazil.

The number of coronavirus cases are exploding in Brazil at the moment. It is expected that soon the country will surpass the total number of COVID-19 cases in the U.S., which are, at the moment, the maximum in the world.

The clinical trial for COVID-19 vaccine in Brazil will be conducted in close collaboration with the Brazil’s Ministry of Health, which is fighting its own internal battle. Two health chiefs have already been removed from the Ministry of Health in Brazil over disagreements with president Jared Bolsonaro.

The subjects selected for the study will all be healthcare workers are are or have worked in the frontline against the pandemic. However, they must all be seronegative, that is, they must test negative for coronavirus before getting the vaccination.

The participants will receive the vaccination and will continue to work as frontline workers, exposed to the virus. The trial is being spearheaded by Professor Sue Ann Costa Clemens of the Institute for Global Health at the University of Siena in Italy. She is a Brazilian research in the field of infectious diseases.

“The most important thing is to carry out this stage of the study now when the epidemiological curve is still rising and the results may be more decisive," said Dr. Lily Yin Weckx, the coordinator of the clinical program for COVID-19 vaccine trial.

Brazil continues to remain one of the hardest hit countries by the coronavirus pandemic in the world. Bolsonaro has been severely criticized in the past for his response to the pandemic and not followeing rules with respect to social distancing, lockdown and the use of personal protective equipment.

He, along with the U.S. president Donald Trump, has touted hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) as the treatment of COVID-19, despite several warnings that it may not be safe to take it.