A television news report about a US biotech company runs alongside a claim that the company successfully created a vaccine for the COVID-19 within “three hours.”
The news report features superimposed text that reads: “San Diego Lab Discovers COVID-19 vaccine in three hours. Thanks God”., The post’s Thai-language caption translates to English as:\n\t“Isn’t it amazing?\xa0\n\tWhich came first: the chicken or the egg?\xa0\n\tHave you heard of drug efficiency testing in mice?\n\tAmerica discovered a vaccine that can cure COVID-19 within three hours.”, Below is a screenshot of the misleading post:, The post refers to a possible COVID-19\xa0vaccine being tested by US pharmaceutical company Inovio., As of March 22, 2020, COVID-19 has killed more than 13,444 people and infected 306,130 others worldwide, according to\xa0this\xa0AFP report., A similar claim was\xa0also shared on Facebook in Thai here, here, here, here and here; and in English here., The claim is misleading., On January 10, 2020, Inovio said it had\xa0developed\xa0a potential\xa0vaccine for COVID-19 within three hours of receiving\xa0the genetic sequence\xa0from Chinese researchers, according to an official press release., "“Using our modern DNA medicines platform, we designed our DNA vaccine INO-4800 in three hours after the publication of the genetic sequence of the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19,” Dr. J. Joseph Kim, Inovios president and CEO, said in the statement, which was released on March 3, 2020.", , The statement also details the company’s timeline for developing the vaccine, which includes human clinical trials beginning in April 2020 and trial results being released in late 2020. By the end of 2020, the statement adds, Inovio plans to have one\xa0million vaccine doses produced for further trials or emergency use., Jeff Richardson, an Inovio spokesman, also said the company’s vaccine was\xa0not yet ready for treating patients., “Our DNA vaccine will be in human testing in April,” Richardson told AFP by email on March 18, 2020., The video news report published in the misleading posts, which was produced by local television network CBS 8 San Diego, accurately reports that while the vaccine was developed in three hours, it remains in the development phase. The full report can be seen on the network’s YouTube channel here., , The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also states here that there is currently no vaccine to cure the coronavirus., "Below is a screenshot of the CDCs statement:", The World Health Organization (WHO) also said there is “no vaccine and no specific antiviral medicine to prevent or treat” COVID-19., “Possible vaccines and some specific drug treatments are under investigation. They are being tested through clinical trials,” the WHO stated\xa0here., , Copyright © AFP 2017-2020.  All rights reserved.  Users can access and consult this website and use the share features available for personal, private, and non-commercial purposes.  Any other use, in particular any reproduction, communication to the public or distribution of the content of this website, in whole or in part, for any other purpose and/or by any other means, without a specific licence agreement signed with AFP, is strictly prohibited.  The subject matter depicted or included via links within the Fact Checking content is provided to the extent necessary for correct understanding of the verification of the information concerned.  AFP has not obtained any rights from the authors or copyright owners of this third party content and shall incur no liability in this regard.  AFP and its logo are registered trademarks.
US biotech company says its COVID-19 vaccine is in the development phase | AFP Fact Check