China coronavirus: Vaccine being developed in the UK has a ‘very good chance’ of being effective Professor Robin Shattock said a vaccine could help if there was a second outbreak next winter

An expert from the UK who is developing a vaccine to tackle the deadly coronavirus has said it has a “very good chance” of proving effective.

Professor Robin Shattock, head of mucosal infection and immunity at Imperial College London, said he plans to start testing the vaccine on animals by the middle of February.

If enough funding is secured, human studies could then follow in the summer, meaning the vaccine could potentially be ready if there was a second wave of the virus next winter.

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Second outbreak

Around 100 people in the UK have now been tested, with all of them so far having been given the all-clear.

However, in China more than 100 people have died and strict travel restrictions have been imposed on several cities in an effort to halt the disease’s spread.

Professor Shattock said it would be “great” if the virus died off by the end of the spring but said it was important to consider the worse case scenario of a second outbreak.

“If that was the size of what’s happening in Wuhan, it would cripple the NHS in the UK,” he said. “That’s a worst-case scenario.”

However, if this was the case Professor Shattock said enough vaccines could be made initially for people working in NHS emergency services.

“We are pretty confident we could make enough material for first responders in the UK, medical staff and paramedics and so on,” he said.

“Scaling it up beyond that is a question of finance.”

While more work is needed, Professor Shattock said that current indications were that the vaccine has a “very good chance” of being effective.

However, he admitted that there was a global race to produce the world’s first and that it was likely that the US would win.

But he added: “Having as many options available in the pipeline as possible is prudent. We may have a range of things with difficult levels of effectiveness.”

Travel restrictions

China has imposed strict travel restrictions on the city of Wuhan, believed to be the source of the current outbreak.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock has previously asked anyone in the UK who has returned from the city in the last 14 days to isolate themselves from other people.

Pre-clinical testing in Australia has also shown great promise for coronavirus vaccines, according to Professor Stephen Turner from Monash University’s department of microbiology.

He said the current outbreak had the potential to become a pandemic because it has not been seen by humans before, meaning there is no pre-existing immunity, making transmission easier.

“The other area of concern is that fact that while this particular coronavirus appears to have originated in bats, it has the ability to infect and transmit between humans,” he added.

Additional reporting from PA Media.