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"I want to learn about the virus. I want doctors to be able to learn from me to help others"
South Africa has become the very first African country to participate in Bill Gates Foundation funded COVID-19 vaccine trials.Yesterday, Wits University announced that it was going ahead with coronavirus vaccine clinical trial.
Junior Mhlongo, 24, from Soweto has just been injected with what South African medical scientists and vaccinologists hope will stop the global spread of Covid-19. Two thousand South Africans are taking part in the study.
The South African Ox1Cov-19 Vaccine VIDA-Trial aims to find a vaccine that will prevent infection by SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19.
“I want to learn about the virus. I want doctors to be able to learn from me to help others," said Mhlongo
“This is important. I am doing it to help. Not for any other reason," added Mhlongo.
Shabir Madhi, professor of vaccinology at Wits university and director of the SA Medical Research Council's vaccines and infectious diseases analytics research unit, said it was an exciting moment.
We’ve always known that the first people to be vaccinated will be black people. It’s very interesting to know why this announcement didn’t come from @DrZweliMkhize as our Health Minister. We also knew that Bill Gates was going to be involved #Covid19InSA Meet Junior Mhlongo pic.twitter.com/0a27SCwYje
— White Man Confession (@ConfessionWhite) June 24, 2020
Bill Gates Foundation has partnered with The South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) to develop the very first vaccine in Africa.
The university announced that it is going ahead with vaccine trials during a virtual press conference.
By vaccinating volunteers with ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, scientists hope to make the human body recognise and develop an immune response that will help stop the SARS-CoV-2 virus from entering human cells and causing Covid-19.
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