COVID-19 vaccine causes only mild side effects, says expert
ANKARA
A potential COVID-19 vaccine that is being developed by China has had only mild side effects on the volunteers, Professor Murat Gökava from Hacettepe University in Ankara has said.
The third phase of human trials for the vaccine started five days ago and it has been administered to 20 health workers, according to Gökova.
“We have not observed a serious but only minor side effects of the vaccine on the volunteers, such as injection site reaction and fatigue. All vaccines, however, cause such side effects,” he added.
The volunteers will be closely monitored and routinely examined, Gökova noted.
Some 1,200 health workers will be injected in the trial phase and tests will be carried out on a total of 25 centers, including Hacettepe.
“Test may begin in some facilities in Istanbul this week. Due to some red tape, tests have not started in other centers,” he said.
After the vaccination of health workers is finalized, other volunteers will start to be included to the test trials, according to Gökova.
The vaccine will be administered in two times 14 days apart.
“This [test trials] is going to be long process and will last some seven months. We are just at the beginning,” he said.
As far as the vaccine development in Turkey is concerned, Gökova noted that the works for a potential vaccine are at their early stage. “We are at the animal trial phase yet,” he said.
Turkey has also given permission for test trials for a vaccine which is being developed by Pfizer.
