Israel's COVID-19 vaccine administered to first trial volunteers
Two volunteers received doses of the vaccine Sunday in the first phase of human trials.
Israel has begun human trials of a COVID-19 vaccine that scientists hope to roll out to the public next summer, with the first two volunteers receiving doses of the vaccine on Sunday.
A 26-year-old and a 34-year-old were injected with the BriLife SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, which the Israel Institute for Biological Research (IIBR) began testing on animals in March. The state-run laboratory has so far produced 25,000 doses of the vaccine to be used in human trials at the Sheba Medical Center near Tel Aviv and the Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem.
“The true exit from the coronavirus crisis is in the development of vaccines,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said after meeting with one of the trial’s volunteers on Sunday.
“Therefore, this is a very important day, a day that gives a shot of encouragement. … We wish success during these and the latter stages. With God’s help, we will have a vaccine made here in Israel. This is a very big thing,” he said, according to The Jerusalem Post.
