Pic: New Atlas
Faizel Patel – 15/09/2020
The CEO of the Mzansi Ethical Research Centre in Middelburg Dr. Mohammed Siddique Tayob says the COVID-19 vaccine trials he is conducting prepares the immune system to defend the human body against the virus and other invading organisms.
Dr. Tayob was speaking to Radio Islam on Tuesday about his vaccine trials called Ensemble led by Professor Glenda Gray differs from the current trials at Wits University led by Professor Shabir Madhi and developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca
The vaccine by the Mzansi Ethical Research Centre is being tested by Janssen pharmaceuticals and funded by the United States government of medical and health sciences.
Dr Tayob says there are about thirty vaccine trials being conducted around the world.
He says they are hoping their vaccine will work against the COVID-19 virus.
“Most of them, the method of excellence is quite similar. It’s basically a particle of the virus itself is injected into the human body and then that simulates the humeral response which is an anti-body producing response towards the virus. So it prepared the body’s immune system or defence system for an invading organism that you might get in the future so the body is prepared.”
Asked about President Cyril Ramaphosa possibly moving the country to the level 1 of the lockdown and whether South Africans should continue taking precautions and respecting COVID-19 regulations, Dr Tayob has emphasized that the coronavirus does not respect or comply with geopolitical or socioeconomic circumstances.
“So we might be changing from a lockdown of two to a lockdown of one, but that does not necessarily mean that the pandemic is over and we can go back to our previous lives. We should still continue to practice social distancing, washing our hands, wearing our masks.”
South Africa has paused its trial of a vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca after an independent data and safety-monitoring committee raised a red flag when a participant in the UK fell ill.
The South African arm of the trial is led by Wits University whose researchers decided to press pause too.
Listen to the interview with Dr. Mohammed Siddique Tayob
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