⁍ One of the world’s leading COVID-19 experimental vaccines produces an immune response in both young and old adults.

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⁍ The vaccine, developed by the University of Oxford, also triggers lower adverse responses among the elderly.

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⁍ A vaccine that works is seen as a game-changer in the battle against the novel coronavirus.

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– The deadly strain of coronavirus that has killed more than a million people around the world over the last two years appears to be slowing down. Researchers say an experimental vaccine they’ve tested on healthy adults between the ages of 18 and 55 triggered “robust immune responses” in both younger and older people, reports the Financial Times. The vaccine is a weakened version of a common cold virus that causes infections in chimpanzees, and researchers hope it will eventually trigger an immune response in humans if they’re ever infected by the new strain of coronavirus, known as COVID-19, which has turned normal life upside down and shut down much of the global economy over the last two years, Reuters reports. If it works, a vaccine would allow the world to return to some measure of normality after the pandemic. “It is encouraging to see immunogenicity responses were similar between older and younger adults and that reactogenicity was lower in older adults, where the COVID-19 disease severity is higher,’ an AstraZeneca spokesman said. “The results further build the body of evidence for the safety and immunogenicity of AZD1222,’ the spokesman said, referring to the technical name of the vaccine. The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is expected to be one of the first from big pharma to secure regulatory approval, along with Pfizer and BioNTech’s candidate, as the world tries to plot a path out of the COVID-19 pandemic. The news that older people get an immune response from the vaccine is positive because the immune system weakens with age and older people are those most at risk of dying from the virus.