Don't rush COVID-19 vaccine, expert warns

The search for a vaccine against the novel coronavirus is vital but cannot be rushed and must respect standard safety protocols, a leading expert has cautioned.

"It's essential that we work as hard and fast as possible to develop drugs and vaccines that are widely available across the world," Shibo Jiang, professor of virology at Shanghai's University of Fudan and the New York Blood Center, wrote in the journal Nature.

"But it is important not to cut corners."

Jiang, who has worked on coronavirus vaccines since the 2003 SARS outbreak, said regulators should evaluate any vaccine's efficacy against a range of viruses and use several animal subjects before testing in humans.

"Governments are understandably desperate for anything that would forestall the deaths, closures and quarantines resulting from COVID-19," he wrote.

"But combating this disease demands a vaccine that is safe and potent."

Experts have warned that a vaccine could be more than a year away as clinical trials need to ensure it is safe in human test subjects before distributing to the wider public.

Nearly 200,680 people around the world have been infected with COVID-19, with more than 8,000 deaths, as of 1300 GMT Wednesday.