COVID-19: World’s biggest vaccine trial underway, as WHO warns 7m kids will suffer stunted growth

The world’s biggest COVID-19 vaccine trial got under way on Monday in the United States of America with the first of 30,000 planned volunteers helping to test shots created by the US government along with pharmaceutical company Moderna.

This came as figures provided by the Johns Hopkins University revealed that nearly 16.5 million people around the world have been diagnosed with the COVID-19, while some 9.6 million patients have recovered, and more than 654,000 have died from the virus.

Meanwhile, the United Nations has warned that nearly seven million more children will suffer stunting as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic affecting food supplies across the globe.

Writing in The Lancet, a team of experts modelled the impact on 118 poor and middle-income countries and found the prevalence of moderate or severe wasting among children under five would increase by 14.3 percent, or an extra 6.7 million cases.

Wasting occurs when the body is so malnourished that muscles and fat begin to disappear.