COVAX-19: The Australian vaccine that has already ‘shown it can potentially save lives’

A leading South Australian vaccine is showing promising signs it “could actually save lives”, and the developers of the vaccine say it could safely be used in human immediately.

The first stage of human trials of the vaccine, known as covax-19, have almost wrapped up, and vaccine developer Professor Nikolai Petrovsky says there’s no reason it can’t be used in Victorian aged care homes now.

“We have something that we believe already has shown it can potentially save lives,” he told Neil Mitchell.

“Obviously, we’re still under the clinical trial phase but there’s no reason those trials couldn’t be extended to nursing homes in Victoria, just as we’re currently doing in South Australia.

“The data suggests it’s highly effective, we just need to finish the clinical trial programs and then seek approval for it.

“There’s no reason it can’t be used before that because it is safe, so you’re not going to lose anything by using it … We’ve used very similar vaccines in thousands of people for influenza.”

Professor Petrovsky says the vaccine has been shown to produce “very strong” antibodies which kill coronavirus in monkeys, ferrets and mice, and has been proven to induce an antibody response in humans.

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