COVID-19: J&J begins vaccine trials on humans in wake of success on monkeys

Adebayo Obajemu

Following the claim of Russian Pharmaceutical company of testing COVID-19 vaccines, American pharmaceutical giant, Johnson & Johnson (J&J), has announced Wednesday that it was starting safe human trials with its COVID-19 vaccine after its study on monkeys showed that its best-performing vaccine candidate offered strong protection in a single dose.

In a published study in the influential journal, Nature, stated that during the conduct of the trials, when exposed to the virus, 6 out of 6 animals who were given the experimental vaccine were completely protected from lung disease. Also, 5 out of the 6 animals were protected from infection as measured by the presence of the virus in nasal swaps.