A man passes a sign at the Ast Strazeneca site in Castlesfield, McLeans, Central England.
Phil Noble | Reuters
LONDON – Government ministers and experts in Britain have openly endorsed the coronavirus vaccine from AstraZeneca and Oxford University, following this week’s U.S.
Home Secretary Robert Genrick became the latest in a row of people commenting on the vaccine, showing an average of 70% effectiveness in preventing the virus.
“I don’t think there’s any reason to be overly concerned,” he told Sky News on Friday morning. “We have now written to the body that will independently evaluate the accuracy and safety of the vaccine.”
Patrick Vallens, the UK government’s top scientific adviser, said the focus should be on how the vaccine actually works when asked about trial-related doubts.
“The headline result is vaccine work and it’s very exciting,” Valance said during a news conference on Thursday. Echoing his remarks at the same conference, Chief Medical Adviser Chris Whitty said that virtually everything was always discussed scientifically.
Whitty added, “The main point of our view is to leave this in the hands of the regulator … they will assess with a lot of data that is not currently in the public domain on effectiveness and safety.”
Rollout next month
Britain has asked its medicine regulator to evaluate the vaccine for temporary supply, which could mean it has rolled out in the country before the end of the year. Four million doses could be used in Britain next month, but U.S. concerns could mean a rollout there that could come later.
The 70% figure is associated with a small group of people who inadvertently received low doses of the vaccine that produced 90% efficacy, and the large group who received high doses showed only 62% efficacy.
U.S. Criticism
Monsef Sloui, chief of the White House’s Operation Operation Vernon Speed, and others in the U.S. have expressed concern about the age group being tested, saying 90% effectiveness was shown only for the lowest risk group, number less than 55. There are 2,741 people of all ages.
John Lamatitina, former president of Pfizer Global R&D, said on Tuesday that it was “hard to believe” that the FDA would provide the EU with a vaccine, the best dose given to only 2,300 people.
AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot confirmed to Bloomberg on Thursday that the British pharmaceutical giant would conduct an additional global trial to evaluate the effectiveness of its Covid-19 vaccine.
AstraZeneca response
The company has pushed against the criticism on the fact that the study conducted by the External Data Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) to monitor and only the interim results of the data released on Monday have been formed and more data follows.
It emphasizes that “higher standards” were used and that “additional analysis will be conducted.”
This particular vaccine is considered crucial for emerging markets due to its relative ease of production and transportation and its low cost compared to potential competitors.
AstraZeneca said its vaccine can be stored, transported and administered under normal refrigerated conditions (-4 36–46 degrees Fahrenheit) for at least six months and can be administered in existing health care settings. It also promises to distribute the vaccine “for a period of epidemics” without any profit.
Slide of shares
Shares of AstraZeneca plunged again on Friday and fell nearly 7% after its test results were announced on Monday morning.
Jim O’Neill, a former chief economist at Goldman Sachs and now president of the UK, told Chantham House’s Tank House that he hoped the confusion over the results “would not be filled with mud.” He referred to anti-vaccination activists, a loud fringe that opposes inoculation. They believe that contrary to scientific evidence, the ingredients in the vaccine can harm the body.
“It’s a little confusing in my opinion that the vaccine community kind of wants to present these things through a press release without full details … In general, it’s not particularly helpful considering the anti-crowd crowd. Said.
“The other thing is that it seems that regulatory authorities here (in the UK) do not seem to be sharing the concerns being expressed openly in the states.”
Sam Meridith of CNBC contributed to this article.
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