Actual Headline: “Promising Covid Vaccine in Australia Abandoned After Trial Participants Test False Positive for HIV”
December 11th, 2020It’s as if Dr. Mengele went on the Benny Hill Show.
Via: Independent:
Australia has abandoned the trial of a locally developed vaccine against Covid-19 after some trial participants showed false HIV positive results.
The vaccine was being developed by the University of Queensland (UQ) and biotech firm CSL, which was one of the four main candidates contracted by the Australian government for coronavirus vaccines.
According to a statement from the Australian government, the evidence from the University of Queensland’s phase one clinical trials showed the vaccine to be safe and that it produced a strong immune response able to neutralise the Covid-19 virus.
But it explained that as part of the vaccine’s design, the university’s researchers included a small fragment of a protein taken from the HIV virus, glycoprotein 41 (gp41), which was used to create a “molecular clamp” to hold the vaccine’s synthetic virus in place.
“Although the university’s researchers have confirmed the protein fragment poses absolutely no health risk to people who have taken the vaccine, they have identified a partial antibody response to it among trial participants. This has the potential to interfere with some HIV screening tests that look for these antibodies – leading to a false positive test result,” the statement said.
It was “this impact on HIV screening – and in the context of other promising vaccine candidates becoming available” that led to the Australian government’s decision, it said.
“Importantly, pathology testing that directly looks for the HIV virus has confirmed negative results for the trial participants who have taken the vaccine,” the statement clarified.
I literally burst out laughing to your “it’s as if Dr. Mengele went on the Benny Hill show”!!! That’s the funniest thing i’ve heard in weeks!!
“False” positive. False. Sure.
Re:cgroove69 – absolutely !