Coronavirus vaccine could 'possibly be available in UK by Christmas,' scientist tells ITV News

A coronavirus vaccine may be available by Christmas in the UK, a scientist involved in researching a vaccine has told ITV News.

Professor Adrian Hill is director of the Jenner Institute at Oxford University, one of several teams around the world working around the clock to develop a Covid-19 vaccine.

Speaking on the ITV News podcast Coronavirus: What You Need To Know to Science Editor Tom Clarke and Health Correspondent Emily Morgan, Professor Hill gave some hope to a world in lockdown, desperately waiting for a Covid-19 vaccine which is seen by many as the only way out of the coronavirus crisis.

Professor Hill and the team at the Jenner Institute are aiming to have a vaccine and clinical trials by the end of April.

Asked if the public could expect to be able to get a coronavirus vaccine from their GP by Christmas, Professor Hill said we could "quite possibly" see a vaccine by December, but added: "We can't guarantee it. It's a very challenging timeline."

"It is not simple to make a vaccine that most of the world is going to watch," he told the ITV News podcast.

"So the disadvantage of finishing first is the burden is on whoever's done that to manufacture not just at large scale but at global scale. So we're not talking about making millions of doses. We can probably do that. We're talking about hundreds of millions or maybe even billions of doses. So we don't know if we can do that," he continued.

Researchers across the world are working around the clock to develop vaccines and treatments for coronavirus. Credit: ITV News

"Normally vaccines take years to develop. A lot of that is finishing it off, getting the manufacturing absolutely perfect and meeting all the precise regulatory requirements, there's a lot of detail there, but we don't have time to do that."

Professor Hill said the speed of the vaccine development posed no risk to the public, explaining that the fast turnaround was possible because the scientific community had given priority to developing Covid-19 vaccine allowing processes that would normally take months to happen "over a phone call".

One of the greatest challenges, he said, was getting a vaccine into a clinical trial before Covid-19 cases fall too low in the first wave.

While from a public health point of view, lockdown is essential to reduce the burden on the NHS, it means the number of cases could fall so low thy won't be able to prove the vaccine works to protect people form the virus.

"All the regulatory authorities - ethical agencies, review bodies, funders, all the people we need to support us to do vaccine development normally - are literally downing tools on other activities and giving total priority to Covid," he told the ITV News podcast.

"So instead of sending in an application and hoping for a response in two or three months from a funder, we can do that in days. We can do that on a telephone call. And if you add up all those delays and take them out, you're making vaccines in less than a year rather than five years."

You can listen to the whole interview on the latest episode of Coronavirus: What You Need To Know - wherever you get your podcasts, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify - or listen using the player below.

Coronavirus: Everything you need to know