Tag COVID19

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Prince Charles is convinced he’s “way down the list” for the COVID-19 vaccine.

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The 72-year-old British royal and his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, paid a visit to the vaccination centre at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital in England on Thursday, where they met with frontline National Health Service workers administering the Pfizer-BioNTech jab.

Speaking to reporters at the facility, Charles, who is first in line to the British throne, revealed he is yet to be vaccinated against the virus and doesn’t anticipate receiving one until the AstraZeneca one is in use.

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“I think I am way down the list and will have to wait,” he affirmed. “I think I’ll have to wait for the AstraZeneca one before it gets to my turn. I’m some way down the list.”

The Prince of Wales tested positive for coronavirus in March and spent the first U.K. lockdown in March in isolation. Charles previously admitted he “got away with it quite lightly” when he contracted the potentially deadly virus.

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Revealing his bout of ill health drove him to do more to “push and shout and prod” when it comes to his campaigning for the natural world, he shared: “It makes me even more determined to push and shout and prod if you see what I mean. Whatever I can do behind the scenes sometimes. I suppose it did partly, I mean I was lucky in my case and got away with it quite lightly.

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“But I’ve had it, and I can so understand what other people have gone through. And I feel particularly for those for instance, who have lost their loved ones and have been unable to be with them at the time. That to me is the most ghastly thing.

“But in order to prevent this happening to so many more people, this is why I’m so determined to find a way out of this,” he concluded. “In order to bring the world and all of us back to the centre, back to understanding what we have to do in relationship to the natural world.”

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The key to ending the global COVID-19 pandemic may be a llama named Wally.

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According to a study by the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, scientists have found a way to extract fragments of the SARS-CoV-2 antibody from llamas that may help in treating the novel coronavirus.

These fragments – known also as nanobodies – are smaller than antibodies found in humans and much more effective in killing the fatal virus. The university researchers believe the nanobodies can be made into inhalable therapeutic products that could potentially treat and prevent COVID-19.

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“Nature is our best inventor,” said Yi Shi, an assistant professor of cell biology at the University of Pittsburgh.

“The technology we developed surveys SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing nanobodies at an unprecedented scale, which allowed us to quickly discover thousands of nanobodies with unrivalled affinity and specificity,” said Shi.

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In order to create these nanobodies, researchers immunized Wally the llama with a fragment of COVID-19’s spike protein. About two months later, Wally’s immune system made mature nanobodies.

Another university researcher, Yufei Xiang, noticed the nanobodies in the llama’s bloodstream bound to the coronavirus most strongly. Scientists then exposed these nanobodies to the virus itself and noticed a fraction of a nanogram could kill enough of it to prevent one million human cells from becoming infected.

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Shi stated the nanobodies can last for six weeks at room temperature and tolerate enough to be used to create an inhalable mist to deliver the therapy to the lungs. This form of treatment is a contrast to traditional antibodies that are administered via IV, which dilutes the products, needs a higher dose and hurts the wallet, the researchers stated.

“Nanobodies could potentially cost much less,” said Shi. “They’re ideal for addressing the urgency and magnitude of the current crisis.”

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