Bill Evanina, director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, said the US government had warned medical research organisations of the risks.

But he would not say whether there had been confirmed cases of stolen data.

UK security sources says they have also seen similar activity.
Warp speed

An international race is on to find a vaccine for Covid-19.

Researchers, companies and governments are all involved. And their efforts are simultaneously being protected by domestic spy agencies, while being targeted by foreign ones.

Mr Evanina’s organisation provides advice on countering the work of foreign intelligence agencies to the US government, businesses and academia.

“We have been working with our industry and government folk here very closely to ensure they are protecting all the research and data as best they can,” he said.

“We have every expectation that foreign intelligence services, to include the Chinese Communist Party, will attempt to obtain what we are making here.”

The US government is trying to aid work on a vaccine with a programme reportedly called Operation Warp Speed.

Whichever country discovers the first effective and safe formulation may be able to ensure its citizens are first to benefit.

“We’ve been in contact with every medical research organisation that is doing the research to be very, very vigilant,” Mr Evanina added.

“In today’s world there is nothing more valuable or worth stealing than any kind of biomedical research that is going to help with a coronavirus vaccine.”
Hospital attacks

In mid-April, an FBI official said there had been “some intrusions” into institutions working on Covid-related research.

Deputy assistant director Tonya Ugoretz said bio-medical data had long been “a priority target for cyber-espionage” and organisations publicly linked to work on the virus had become a “mark”.

Later in the month, the US assistant attorney general for national security, John Demers, said it would be “beyond absurd” to think China would not be interested in such details.

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Canada’s Centre for Cyber Security warned in March that “sophisticated threat actors may attempt to steal the intellectual property of organisations engaged in research and development related to Covid-19.”

US and Western spies are also likely to be interested in what is going on inside China, including any discrepancies over the death toll from Covid-19 as well as its research on vaccines and treatments.

There have also been ongoing concerns about the risks of cyber-attacks against health organisations, which could undermine their ability to respond to the outbreak.

Two hospitals in the Czech Republic reported experiencing cyber-attacks in April. This led to an unusual request from the US Secretary of State.

“We call upon the actor in question to refrain from carrying out disruptive malicious cyber-activity against the Czech Republic’s healthcare system or similar infrastructure elsewhere,” Mike Pompeo said in a statement.

Two volunteers were injected, the primary of quite 800 people recruited for the study.

Half will receive the Covid-19 vaccine, and half an impact vaccine which protects against meningitis but not coronavirus.

The design of the trial means volunteers won’t know which vaccine they’re getting, though doctors will.

Elisa Granato, one among the 2 who received the jab, told the BBC: “I’m a scientist, so I wanted to undertake to support the scientific process wherever I can.”

The vaccine was developed in under three months by a team at Oxford University . Sarah Gilbert, professor of vaccinology at the Jenner Institute, led the pre-clinical research.

“Personally I even have a high degree of confidence during this vaccine,” she said.

“Of course, we’ve to check it and obtain data from humans. we’ve to demonstrate it actually works and stops people getting infected with coronavirus before using the vaccine within the wider population.”

Prof Gilbert previously said she was “80% confident” the vaccine would work, but now prefers to not put a figure thereon , saying simply she is “very optimistic” about its chances.
So how does the vaccine work?

The vaccine is formed from a weakened version of a standard cold virus (known as an adenovirus) from chimpanzees that has been modified so it cannot grow in humans.

The Oxford team has already developed a vaccine against Mers, another sort of coronavirus, using an equivalent approach - which had promising leads to clinical trials.
Image caption Fergus holding a vial of the vaccine developed by the Oxford team
How will they know if it works?

The only way the team will know if the Covid-19 vaccine works is by comparing the amount of individuals who get infected with coronavirus within the months ahead from the 2 arms of the trial.

That could be a drag if cases fall rapidly within the UK, because there might not be enough data.

Prof Andrew Pollard, director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, who is leading the trial, said: “We’re chasing the top of this current epidemic wave. If we do not catch that, we cannot be ready to tell whether the vaccine works within the next few months. But we do expect that there’ll be more cases within the future because this virus hasn’t gone away.”

The vaccine researchers are prioritising the recruitment of local healthcare workers into the trial as they’re more likely than others to be exposed to the virus.

A larger trial, of about 5,000 volunteers, will start within the coming months and can haven’t any regulation .

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Older people tend to possess weaker immune responses to vaccines. Researchers are evaluating whether or not they might need two doses of the jab.

The Oxford team is additionally working with researchers in Kenya a few possible vaccine trial there, where the rates of transmission are growing from a lower base.

If the numbers might be a drag , why not deliberately infect volunteers with coronavirus?

That would be a fast and certain thanks to determine if the vaccine was effective, but it might be ethically questionable because there are not any proven treatments for Covid-19.

But which may be possible within the future. Prof Pollard said: “If we reach the purpose where we had some treatments for the disease and that we could guarantee the security of volunteers, that might be a really great way of testing a vaccine.”
Is it safe?

The trial volunteers are going to be carefully monitored within the coming months. they need been told that some may get a sore arm, headaches or fevers within the first few days after vaccination.

They are also told there’s a theoretical risk that the virus could induce a significant reaction to coronavirus, which arose in some early Sars animal vaccine studies.
Image copyright Sean Elias - Oxford Vaccine trial
Image caption Work began on a vaccine in January

But the Oxford team says its data suggests the danger of the vaccine producing an enhanced disease is minimal, and data from animal studies has been positive.

Scientists there hope to possess a million doses ready by September, and to dramatically proportion manufacturing then , should the vaccine prove effective.
So who would catch on first?

Prof Gilbert says that has not been decided yet: “It’s not really our role to dictate what is going to happen, we just need to attempt to get a vaccine that works and have enough of it then it’ll be for others to make a decision .”

Prof Pollard added: “We’ve need to ensure we’ve enough doses to supply for those in greatest need, not just within the UK but also in developing countries.”
Media captionCoronavirus: what’s a vaccine and the way is one made?

Another team at Imperial College London hopes to start human trials of its coronavirus vaccine in June.

The Oxford and Imperial teams have received quite £40m of state funding.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock has praised both teams and said the united kingdom will “throw everything we’ve got” at developing a vaccine.

UK chief medical adviser Prof Chris Whitty has said neither a vaccine, nor a drug to treat Covid-19, is probably going to be available within subsequent year.