Malaysian doctor joins London's Imperial College team developing Covid-19 vaccine

PETALING JAYA: UK-trained surgeon Dr Nur Amalina Che Bakri has joined a team at the Imperial College in London to develop a vaccine for Covid-19, which has infected over two million people globally.

Dr Nur Amalina is tasked at finding suitable volunteers to take part in the vaccine trials, which is being conducted at the Imperial College’s National Institute of Health Research (NIHR).

“The first of the UK vaccine trials has started at the NIHR Imperial Clinical Research Facility led by Dr Katrina Pollock.

“I’m involved in recruiting healthy volunteers and vaccinating them in the next few weeks, ” she tweeted on Thursday (April 23).

The first of the UK vaccine trials has started at the NIHR Imperial Clinical Research Facility @imperialcollege led by Dr Katrina Pollock. I’m involved in recruiting healthy volunteers and vaccinating them in the next few weeks.— Dr. Amalina (@DrAmalinaBakri) April 22, 2020

The UK government had pledged to provide a £22.5mil (RM121.1mil) grant to fast track the college’s development of a vaccine for Covid-19, according to an article by Imperial College.

The announcement was made by UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock, who said “in the long run, the best way to defeat Covid-19 is through a vaccine”.

“The UK is at the forefront of the global effort... and for all the efforts around the world, two of the leading vaccine developments are taking place here at home, at Oxford and Imperial, ” he was quoted as saying.

At present, there is no vaccine for Covid-19 and experts have said that it will take up to two years to find one.