The first person in the world to receive an experimental Ebola vaccine is a 37-year-old UK man named Ed Hunt, who apparently missed his chance to get jabbed during a pandemic and decided to make up for it by getting jabbed for a different deadly virus. Hunt, who received the vaccine in Oxford, said he was inspired by news reports of the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The vaccine uses the same technology as the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid jab - you know, the one that was given to hundreds of millions of people. Hunt is the first of 50 healthy volunteers aged 18-55 being recruited for the trial. He told the BBC: "I had wanted to volunteer for the Covid vaccine trial but was unable to because of work commitments. After seeing news from DR Congo I thought I'd like to do my bit."

Professor Teresa Lamb, who led the Ebola vaccine team at the University of Oxford, said they whipped it up in just eight weeks thanks to decades of research. She helpfully clarified that the trial will not give anyone Ebola, which is a relief. The phase one study aims to check safety and see if the vaccine triggers a strong immune response against the Bundibugyo species of Ebola - the one currently causing outbreaks. There are four vaccines in development for this species, but this is the first to enter human trials. A licensed vaccine exists for the Zaire species, but it's useless against Bundibugyo.

The Oxford team says a second small trial is due to begin soon in Uganda, followed by a bigger efficacy study in DR Congo. The Serum Institute in India has already manufactured 600,000 doses of the Oxford vaccine, ready to roll if the trials go well. To date, DR Congo has seen more than 2,500 confirmed Ebola cases, including just over 1,000 deaths. So, you know, no pressure.