INTERVIEW
Has the race for the coronavirus vaccine reached a decisive milestone? According to results published Monday in the medical journal The Lancet, two vaccine projects, one British and the other Chinese, produced encouraging effects on patients. But the president of the scientific council Jean-François Delfraissy called to be "extremely careful" before declaring victory.
"Let’s be very careful with these announcements. The pharmaceutical industry, this is normal, wants to push the advances that can happen. They are all the same announcement effects," reacted the professor, who was invited to Europe 1 on Monday evening.
>> LIVE - Coronavirus: follow the evolution of the situation Monday July 20
A vaccine not before "end 2020-early 2021"
According to the results, the first project, developed by the University of Oxford in partnership with the pharmaceutical group AstraZeneca, generated "a strong immune response" in a trial on more than 1,000 patients. The second project, which researchers from Wuhan in China are working on, funded by CanSino Biologics, provoked a strong reaction in terms of antibodies in another trial among most of the approximately 500 participants.
CORONAVIRUS ESSENTIALS
> Coronavirus: what we know about transmission by micro-droplets in the air
> Coronavirus: three reasons to continue to respect barrier gestures
> Holidays: should grandparents worry about looking after their grandchildren?
> Can we catch coronavirus on a plane?
> Coronavirus: 5 mistakes not to make with your mask
"It is normal that there is an immune response, but we do not yet know what nature, with what force, with what duration, and what types of antibodies are present", warned Jean-François Delfraissy , which calls for patience. "I am extremely careful. We are going to go faster than usual for a vaccine against the coronavirus, but we are rather in a strategy of end of year 2020 or beginning of 2021."