Oxford developers of rapid Covid-19 test awarded RAEng President's Special Award

‘Professor Cui and his team from Oxford's Department of Engineering Science and OSCAR, the Oxford Suzhou Centre for Advanced Research, are one of the winners announced today of the Royal Academy of Engineering's President's Special Awards for Pandemic Service for their rapid viral RNA test for COVID-19.’

Read here (OUP, Aug 17, 2020) 

False and misleading claims about vaccines debunked

‘In the week that Oxford University announced promising results from its coronavirus vaccine trial, we're looking at claims on social media about vaccines and misleading statements about their safety.

‘The anti-vaccination movement has gained traction online in recent years, and campaigners opposed to vaccination have moved their focus to making claims relating to the coronavirus.’

Read here (BBC, July 26, 2020)

Trials for three Covid-19 vaccines show promise but much more work still needed, say experts

‘The global fight against Covid-19 received a boost on Monday with the release of encouraging findings from human trials of three coronavirus vaccines, including a closely watched one being developed by Oxford University. The results showed that the vaccines being tested did not cause any dangerous side effects, and that they could coax a protective response from the human body. But experts said that while the results were encouraging, much more work is still needed to plug remaining gaps in knowledge before a vaccine can be made commercially available.’

Read here (Straits Times, July 22, 2020)

Press releases by RECOVERY (Randomised Evaluation of Covid-19 Therapy) Trial, University of Oxford

This UK national clinical trial, conducted by researchers at the University of Oxford in concert with other relevant institutions, aims to identify treatments that may be beneficial for people hospitalised with suspected or confirmed COVID-19... A range of potential treatments have been suggested for COVID-19 but nobody knows if any of them will turn out to be more effective in helping people recover than the usual standard of hospital care which all patients will receive. The RECOVERY Trial is aimed at evaluating the efficacy of such treatments. It has made a series of press statements from end-March 2020. This link takes you to them.

Read here (RECOVERY Trial website)

In race for a Coronavirus vaccine, an Oxford group leaps ahead

‘In the worldwide race for a vaccine to stop the coronavirus, the laboratory sprinting fastest is at Oxford University. Most other teams have had to start with small clinical trials of a few hundred participants to demonstrate safety. But scientists at the university’s Jenner Institute had a head start on a vaccine, having proved in previous trials that similar inoculations — including one last year against an earlier coronavirus — were harmless to humans. That has enabled them to leap ahead and schedule tests of their new coronavirus vaccine involving more than 6,000 people by the end of next month, hoping to show not only that it is safe, but also that it works.’

Read here (New York Times, April 28, 2020)

The Oxford Vaccine Centre COVID-19 Phase I clinical trial explained

‘The purpose of this study is to test a new vaccine against COVID-19 in healthy volunteers. This study aims to assess whether healthy people can be protected from COVID-19 with this new vaccine called ChAdOx1 nCoV-19. It will also provide valuable information on safety aspects of the vaccine and its ability to generate good immune responses against the virus.’

Read here (The Oxford Vaccine Centre, April 23, 2020)

A WORD OF CAUTION: ‘News about trial progress - We are aware there have been and will be rumours and false reports about the progress of the trial. We urge people not to give these any credibility and not to circulate them.  We will not be offering a running commentary about the trial but all official updates will appear on this site.’

Read here (The Oxford Vaccine Centre, April 26, 2020)