The coronavirus epidemic continues to spread across France. The number of people infected with Covid-19 is now 577 and 9 people have died, according to the latest announcements from Jérôme Salomon, Director General of Health, on Thursday evening. A continuous spread that should trigger phase 3 of the epidemic “between a few days and a week or two ”, according to a doctor received at the Elysée. Worldwide the total number of people infected has exceeded 100,000.
First tests on mice
At the Institut Pasteur, researchers are working on the implementation of a vaccine. The goal is to reach a first vaccine in the fall. To do so, the researchers are basing themselves on that of measles as shown by the cameras of Special Envoy. Covid-19 belongs to the same family of viruses. In the vaccine innovation laboratory, researchers have been working on a vaccine for a month. They are going to assemble the genome of the measles vaccine with a part of that of the coronavirus to obtain a derivative of vaccine that all the countries of the world know how to produce. A first version could be available, at best, during September 2020.
The Institute’s teams are inspired by a process used in 2003 for SARS to develop this new vaccine. In a refrigerated cabinet, the “vaccine candidates” wait to pass the selection. “You have to make sure that they are growing at the right speed, that they have the right sequence, that there is no error in them, to select the right one, the one that will go through development industrial, explains Frédéric Tangy. So there we are. We should start animal experiments these days. ” The first vaccine prototypes will be tested on mice to verify their effectiveness.
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