andrew pollard is heading up a vaccine research group at oxford. >> w we have seeeen exactly thet of immuno responseses we hopopeo see, but we now need to do thee ririgorous s studies to show the vaccine i iprotectiveve against the virus in humans. amy: the worldwide death from covid-19 h has topped 60600,000. acrossss the globe, , countriesd regions are re-imposing new lockdowns and other preventative measures. france, hong kong, and parts of australia have all imposed new orders to wear masks in public spaces as cases grow again. india recorded at least 40,000 new infections on monday, its highest single day total. the pandemic is also worsening in sub-saharan africa as the who -- the world health organization warns of an acceleration of transmission in the region. south africa has topped 5000 coronavirus deaths, as health experts say the virus is expected to peak in the coming weeks. nigeria's foreign minister has tested positive for the cocoronavirus. meanwhile, cuba reported zero nenew cases of covid-19 for the first time i13130 days. president trump isis threatening to send mor

let's speak now to professor andrew pollard from the oxford vaccine group and lydia guthrie, who tookn i saw the advert where the team were looking for participants to volunteer in oxford, i felt straightaway that it was just a really good thing to do to try to make a very small contribution to this massive human effort that the scientists have made, that everybody will benefit from. and lydia, thank you for doing it, on everybody‘s behalf, but some people think, and i think, it is a brave thing to do, because this is untested, isn't it? it is, and i guess that's the point. the researchers were very honest with all the participants that they had skipped out some of the initial animal testing stages that would usually be used for vaccines, because of the urgency of the coronavirus situation. but i felt, reading all the material from the research team, i felt it was a small risk. because it was untested, they couldn't guarantee they wouldn't be any complications, but it felt like any complications, but it felt like a measured risk, and a risk that i could take. it also felt like the tra

let's get more on this from the person who led the clinical trial — professor andrew pollard from thene responses for the vaccine... to reach this point that we have today. can you explain it to the layman exactly what has been achieved at this stage? where i'm not saying at this stage this is a vaccine that works, what are we saying? people have been vaccinated so far, we have seen exactly the right sort of immune response that... but you have to conduct those rigorous clinical trials to be able to demonstrate whether or not... reasons why we're optimistic about that is because these sorts of immune responses are. . . about that is because these sorts of immune responses are... i'm sorry, we've got real problems with that line, we will try and re—establish that line, because that is obviously a significant and we will try and re—establish that line with the professor. but positive news coming from those first results of the oxford astrazeneca trials, the trials showing that the neutralising antibodies were induced and all participants after a second vaccine dose. like i say, will try

professor andrew pollard from the 0xford vaccine group, good luck to you.ou for talking to us. i know you're much indeed. —— busy. now we can speak to dr tom evans, the chief scientific officer of vaccitech, the firm that generated the funds used by scientists to develop the oxford vaccine. thank you for being with us. just explain your role in all of this and what you are trying to do. the company was set up to out licence the technology, using the... what you just heard about, what offered has just you just heard about, what offered hasjust done you just heard about, what offered has just done an astounding job of advancing, and so we were spun out of the university in order to help basically take things forward through commercialisation and through commercialisation and through larger trials that require a lot more funding than you can usually generate by standard sort of academic pursuits, so when this arose, we worked collaboratively with the university and worked as well on the vaccine, focusing on other aspects. they were eventually ahead of us and w