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Australia on Friday canceled an approximately $ 750 million plan for a large order for a locally developed coronavirus vaccine after the inoculation produced false positive results for HIV in some volunteers participating in a trial study.
Of the dozens of coronavirus vaccines being tested around the world, the Australian was the first to be abandoned. While its developers said the experimental vaccine appeared to be safe and effective, false positives ran the risk of undermining confidence in the effort to vaccinate the public.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Friday that his government would make up for the loss of 51 million doses it had planned to buy from the Australian consortium in part by increasing orders for vaccines made by AstraZeneca and Novavax. The government has said it plans to start vaccinating citizens in March.
“We can’t have any problem with confidence,” he told reporters, “and as a nation now, with a good portfolio of vaccines, we can make these decisions to better protect the Australian people.”
Australian Health Minister Greg Hunt told reporters that the country still had access to 140 million units of coronavirus vaccines, more than enough to cover its population of around 25 million people.
The Australian setback showed the missteps that can inevitably occur when scientists, during a pandemic that has killed more than 1.5 million people, rush to condense the usual years-long process of developing vaccines into a matter of months.
The mistake, said John P. Moore, an immunologist at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York, was an “honest mistake” that cost money, not human lives.
“I’m sure a lot of people are very embarrassed,” said Professor Moore. “It’s not cool to be associated with a bug like this. But when you’re running 90 miles per hour, sometimes you stumble. “
