Covid-19: Chinese vaccine 'successful in mid-stage trials'

A Covid-19 vaccine developed in China has shown success in mid-stage trials, researchers say.

There are several vaccines being developed in China, some of which are already being administered.
According to the researchers, the Sinovac Biotech vaccine led to a quick immune response during trials with around 700 people.
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Promising details, but we should wait

Analysis by Pallab Ghosh, Science correspondent, BBC

Following the announcement of not one but two successful potential vaccines for coronavirus in the space of a week, attention is understandably focussed on the minutiae of the latest developments. Under normal circumstances the results of phase 1 and phase 2 trials of a drug would not raise an eyebrow outside the lab. These stages are largely to check if the pharmaceutical is safe and might be effective to try out in more expensive-to-run phase 3 trials. This is what Sinovac has announced.
Its vaccine is different from the ones announced by Pfizer/BionTech and Moderna in that it has been developed using more traditional methods. It uses a chemically inactivated version of the virus. The manufacturers highlight the fact that their vaccine gives a "quick" response in the trials - developing virus-fighting antibodies within 14 days of receiving a dose. This feature would make it suitable for emergency use, they say, during an outbreak or for healthcare workers.
All promising stuff, but we should wait to see the results of the larger scale trials currently under way in Brazil, Indonesia and Turkey before drawing any firm conclusions about its effectiveness. And even then, just like the phase 3 results that have been and will soon be announced, they should be taken in with a healthy dose of caution. Researchers won't know how effective any of them will be in the long term until they start being rolled out in the general population.
The development of vaccines does not mark the end of the pandemic, but the beginning of a long and slow return to normality.

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