The world is racing to find a cure for coroanvirus. Close to 200 COVID-19 vaccines are in currently being developed and some three dozen are at various stages of human testing.?
In the midst of this race, some people, including dozens of scientists, are creating a DIY coronavirus vaccine with no proof of its effectiveness against the Sars-Cov-2 virus. But is it safe??
MIT Technology Review reported that the group calling itself the 'Rapid Deployment Vaccine Collaborative,' or Radvac, did not seek authorisation from the US FDA before designing or spraying the vaccine up their own noses.
The core group was formed by American biologist Preston Estep who was ready to guide an independent COVID vaccine project.?
Estep, a scientist who has a PhD in genetics from Harvard, said he was alarmed by the government's timeline of producing a vaccine in 12-18 months.?He wondered whether they could privately come up with their own using readily-available ingredients.? ? ?
¡°We established a core group, most of them [from] my go-to posse for citizen science, though we have never done anything quite like this,¡± says Estep, also a cofounder of Veritas Genetics, a DNA sequencing company.? ?
According to the report, the scientists have volunteered as lab rats for a do-it-yourself inoculation against the coronavirus and say it's their only chance to become immune without waiting a year or more for a vaccine to be formally approved.
George Church, the celebrity geneticist at Harvard University is one of the few who took the DIY vaccine and the doses were dropped in his mailbox and he mixed the ingredients himself.
Church believes the DIY coronavirus vaccine is extremely safe. ¡°I think we are at a much bigger risk from COVID considering how many ways you can get it, and how highly variable the consequences are,¡± said Church, who says he has not stepped outside of his house in five months.??
RADVAC group carefully studied and analyzed the vaccine reports of SERS and MERS, which are illness caused by coronaviruses.After this, they decided to make a subunit vaccine with a simple formula, which could be made with easily available materials.?
They used peptides (fragments of the protein present in the novel coronavirus) and mixed it with chitosans (a sugar that is obtained from the hard outer skeleton of shellfish) to administer the vaccine.?
The subunit vaccine is supposed to be squirted up the nose as it is a nasal vaccine.?
According to MIT Technology Review, Radvac - formed in March - launched its project without seeking approval from FDA or any ethics board and distributed vaccine materials to dozens in their social circles.
While the FDA did not immediately respond to questions from?MIT Technology Review?about the legality of the vaccine trial, the report added that the independent researchers might be stepping onto thin legal ice. Estep argued that the FDA can't stop participants from the trial as they mix and administer the vaccine themselves, without paying the group any fees in exchange.
¡°If you are just making it and taking it yourself, the FDA can't stop you,¡± said Estep.?According to MIT Technology Review,the Radvac group has offered the vaccine to a widening circle of friends and colleagues, inviting them to mix the ingredients and self-administer the nasal vaccine.?
The group published their vaccine recipe in a white paper with extensive disclaimers, including that anyone using the group's materials should take 'full responsibility' and must be at least 18 years old based in the US.
The white paper also stated that Radvac vaccine also contains chitosan, a substance found in the shells of crustaceans such as shrimp. Before designing their nasal vaccine, the group examined reports of vaccines against SARS and MERS, two other diseases caused by coronaviruses.
While the celebrated geneticist George Church of the Harvard University took the nasal vaccine developed by Estep in the month of July, the jury is still not out on its safety and efficacy against the novel coronavirus.?
Estep's DIY nasal vaccine has met its fair share of sceptics and critics who believe that a nasal subunit vaccine is not potent enough to induce a desired immune system response to battle the novel coronavirus.
As of now, the Radvac group does not know whether its DIY nasal vaccine is effective in producing protective antibodies in the body or not. Estep maintains that the subunit vaccine is a way to potentially provide multiple layers of protection against the virus (in addition to social distancing and wearing masks) and not the ultimate solution.?
The group of researchers have been working in a lab in Boston to try to come up with a safe, effective vaccine like hundreds of others around the world.??They have not yet published results or explained whether any of the volunteers ever tested positive for COVID-19.? ?
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