How hopeful should we be about Oxford’s Covid-19 vaccine?

A Covid-19 vaccine has always been the great hope to take us to the promised land of alert level one and an end to the ‘new normal’: no more social distancing or face masks. Unsurprisingly given the scale of the crisis across the world the race is on to find something that works. It’s a cliche to say it, but a successful vaccine would be a ‘game-changer’ and being first on the block grants the successful pharmaceutical company many millions in profit and worldwide acclaim. Today’s front pages are plastered with talk that Oxford’s vaccine trial might be close to a breakthrough. But finding a vaccine is no easy task and it is right to be cautious about this news.

In the months since the pandemic emerged, there has been no shortage of interest from scientific laboratories around the world in trying to develop a vaccine. There are more than 125 potential candidates in pre-clinical trials but only three so far have made it to actual large-scale testing on people.