The US Army is reportedly developing a vaccine to fight against COVID-19 and SARS-origin variants — and could announce the new treatment within weeks.
Scientists at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research expect to announce the one-stop shot in just weeks after nearly two years of research that began with the DNA sequencing of the COVID-19 virus in early 2020, Defense One reported late Tuesday.
READ ALSO: Police Commission Rejects Buhari’s Former CSO’s Service Extension, Orders Refund Of Salaries
The outlet initially reported the vaccine would fight all variants of COVID-19, including Omicron and Delta, as well as prior coronaviruses and strains not yet identified, but the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research issued a statement Wednesday clarifying the report.
“The Spike Ferritin Nanoparticle platform is designed to protect against an array of SARS-CoV-2 variants and SARS-origin variants but was not tested on the Omicron variant,” Walter Reed officials said.
“Scientists from WRAIR remain encouraged by the early data from preclinical studies and testing against the variants is ongoing in a neutralization assay in the laboratory,” the statement continued.
Researchers are currently analyzing the phase 1 human trials data, with study results to be published once completed in a peer-reviewed journal.
READ ALSO: PUTIN: Russia Ready To Take Countermeasures Over Ukraine Threats
Infectious disease specialists at the Department of Defense’s largest biomedical research facility completed animal trials earlier this year with its spike ferritin nanoparticle vaccine, or SpFN, with positive results, according to the report.
“It’s very exciting to get to this point for our entire team and I think for the entire Army as well,” Dr. Kayvon Modjarrad told the outlet.
What makes the vaccine unique is its soccer ball-shaped protein with 24 faces, allowing scientists to attach the spikes of multiple coronavirus variants on different faces of the protein, according to the report.
Human trials took longer than expected since Walter Reed’s lab needed to test it on subjects who hadn’t been vaccinated or previously infected with the disease that’s killed more than 5.3 million globally as of Wednesday, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
The rapid spread of both the Delta and Omicron variants impacted the human trials, Modjarrad said. The new vaccine still needs to undergo phase 2 and 3 trials, he said.
“With Omicron, there’s no way really to escape this virus,” Modjarrad flatly told Defense One. “You’re not going to be able to avoid it. So I think pretty soon either the whole world will be vaccinated or have been infected.”
Scientists now need to understand how the vaccine interacts with people who have already been vaccinated or previously had the virus. Walter Reed and an unnamed industry partner are collaborating on the upcoming wider rollout, according to the report.
Almost all of Walter Reed’s 2,500 staffers played some role in the development of the new vaccine, which still needs to be evaluated in a “real-world setting,” Modjarrad said.
READ ALSO: Couple Sell 6 Month Old Baby For N50,000 In Ogun State.
“We decided to take a look at the long game rather than just only focusing on the original emergence of SARS, and instead understand that viruses mutate, there will be variants that emerge, future viruses that may emerge in terms of new species,” he told the outlet. “Our platform and approach will equip people to be prepared for that.”
President Biden announced Tuesday the government would provide 500 million free rapid home testing kits and boost vaccination efforts amid the fast-spreading Omicron variant, which was first identified in South Africa about a month ago.
The Omicron variant spreads even faster than other coronavirus strains and accounted for nearly three-quarters of new infections in the US last week.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s top infectious disease specialist, said the variant was spreading at a “truly unprecedented” rate, with cases in the US doubling about every two days.
“It’s not surprising that just a week or two ago we had only 8 to 10 percent and now we have 73 percent of all the isolates are Omicron,” Fauci said Tuesday. “That is truly unprecedented in the rapidity with which a virus spreads.”
©ControlTV2021.
