VACCINE: Chinese Researchers Protect Monkeys From Virus

VACCINE: Chinese Researchers Protect Monkeys From Virus

BEIJING — The vaccine race is on and Chinese researchers may have a head start after they claim they have successfully protected monkeys with a coronavirus vaccine.

According to a study published recently in the preprint server bioRxiv, scientists at Sinovac Biotech, a private Beijing based company, subjected eight rhesus macaque monkeys to two versions of its vaccine.

Three weeks later when the monkeys were exposed to the deadly pathogen, none developed a full-blown infection.

In contrast, four control animals developed high levels of SARS-CoV-2 in several body parts and severe pneumonia.

Despite the limitations of the trail, Sinovac's senior director, Meng Weining told Science Magazine that the results "give us a lot of confidence" that the vaccine will work in humans.

The monkeys given the largest dose of the vaccine had the best response, as researchers were unable to detect the virus in any of their pharynxes or lungs.

Monkeys that received a lower dose developed a minor infection in which they appear to have been able to control.

Impressively, the researchers even claimed that the vaccine "neutralized" the strains of the virus isolated from coronavirus patients in China, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, and the United Kingdom.

Acknowledging that monkeys with the virus don't actually develop the most severe symptoms seen in humans, the researchers said, "it's still too early to define the best animal model for studying SARS-CoV-2." Sinovac is no stranger to developing vaccines, having marketed vaccines for hand, foot, and mouth disease; hepatitis A and B; and the bird flu.

TomoNews is your best source for real news.

We cover the funniest, craziest and most talked-about stories on the internet.

If you're laughing, we're laughing.

If you're outraged, we're outraged.

We tell it like it is.

And because we can animate stories, TomoNews brings you news like you've never seen before.

Top TomoNews Stories - The most popular videos on TomoNews!

Http://bit.ly/Top_TomoNews_Stories You Idiot!

- People doing stupid things http://bit.ly/You-Idiot Recent Uploads - The latest stories brought to you by TomoNews http://bit.ly/Latest-TomoNews Ultimate TomoNews Compilations - Can't get enough of TomoNews?

This playlist is for you!

New videos every day http://bit.ly/Ulitmate_TomoNews_Compi... Thanks for watching TomoNews!

Like TomoNews on Facebook ►► http://www.facebook.com/TomoNewsUS Follow us on Twitter ►► @tomonewsus http://www.twitter.com/TomoNewsUS Follow us on Instagram ►► @tomonewsus http://instagram.com/tomonewsus Subscribe to TomoNews ►► http://bit.ly/Subscribe-to-TomoNews Watch more TomoNews ►► http://bit.ly/MoreTomoNews Visit our website for all the latest videos: http://us.tomonews.com Check out our Android app: http://bit.ly/1rddhCj Check out our iOS app: http://bit.ly/1gO3z1f Get top stories delivered to your inbox every day: http://bit.ly/tomo-newsletter