US Army Starts Trial Testing Coronavirus Vaccine On Primates - Medical General

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 07th April, 2020) The US Army has started trial testing a potential novel coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine on primates, Joint Staff Surgeon Air Force Brig. Gen. Paul Friedrichs told a Department of Defense news conference.

"We have some animal safety trials beginning today at one of our laboratories," Friedrichs said on Monday. "We have trials we are doing directly and those are moving forward.

Earlier, assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Jonathan Hoffman told reporters that the tests were being carried out on monkeys.

However, Friedrichs emphasized that the public should not expect a vaccine to be available for months.

"I don't want to create a false expectation. We are still months, not weeks, away from the vaccine ...There is a trial ongoing now with hydroxychloroquine, but we are not distributing it widely in the military," he said.

The testing procedure will first try the vaccines being developed on a small group of primates, then on a small group of human beings and then on a larger group of patients, Friedrichs added.