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Johnson said Monday that he was confident that both the AstraZeneca and Pfizer / BioNTech vaccines would help protect against serious illness and death. According to the British Prime Minister, medicine is slowly beginning to successfully combat the coronavirus.
“We believe that the two vaccines we use are effective in stopping death and serious disease. They continue to be of special benefit to our country and our people.
I have no doubt that vaccines will show us the way in the long run (out of crisis, ed.). “Every day we see that medicine is beginning to fight disease successfully,” Johnson said.
Reuters / Photo by Scanpix / Boris Johnson
He also highlighted the AstraZeneca vaccine, developed in collaboration with researchers at the University of Oxford, which raised doubts about the effectiveness of PAR. According to B. Johnson, the vaccine is 67 percent. reduces the spread of the coronavirus.
South Africa on Sunday announced plans to vaccinate front-line doctors fighting the coronavirus epidemic with the AstraZeneca vaccine when small-scale clinical trials showed the drug was not effective enough to protect against a new variant of the virus that spreads. had spread throughout the country.
South Africa received the first batch of the AstraZeneca vaccine last week – one million doses. Vaccines are scheduled to begin in mid-January, but disappointing preliminary research suggests that the AstraZeneca vaccine may not live up to expectations.
A study, the results of which have not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal, shows that the AstraZeneca vaccine ‘provides minimal protection against the development of a mild to moderate COVID-19 infection’ in young adults exposed to the spread of South Africa from coronavirus.
ZUMA Press / Scanpix nuotr./’AstraZeneca “vaccina”
This news is quite a blow to the global fight against a pandemic. Many poorer countries have high hopes for a cheaper and more affordable AstraZeneca vaccine.
And while the latest study is about a strain of coronavirus that is spread by PAR, nearly 1,500 infections have already been reported in the UK alone. The actual numbers are almost certainly higher.
AstraZeneca itself claims that the vaccine developed by the company protects against serious diseases in people infected with coronavirus. The researchers say there is already an advantage to tailoring the vaccine formula to successfully stop the mutated and PAR-spread virus.
Several countries on the continent have already announced that AstraZeneca will not prescribe the vaccine to older people due to a lack of clear knowledge about its efficacy.
The new strain of coronavirus is considered more contagious and currently accounts for more than 90% of cases. New cases of infection in South Africa.
There are also doubts about the AstraZeneca vaccine in Europe. The European Medicines Agency has approved the vaccine and announced that it can be administered to all adults, but several countries on the continent have already announced that the vaccine will not yet be administered to older people because there is no clear knowledge about its efficacy.
For their part, influential scientists are already calling for a review of vaccination programs. According to them, the acquisition of the so-called herd immunity only through vaccines may become impossible, precisely due to the appearance of strains such as PAR.
“The new findings encourage us to think differently about the pandemic virus, moving from the goal of herd immunity to protecting the most vulnerable from serious diseases,” said Shabir Madhi, a professor of vaccination at the University of Whitershire, who led the last study. .
Another Oxford-based professor, Andrew Pollard, also emphasized: “The study confirms that the virus will also spread in vaccinated societies. But vaccines can still reduce the burden on health systems by protecting against serious diseases. “
According to Oxford University professor Sarah Gilbert, even if vaccines don’t reduce infections, they save lives.
“The total number of infections may not be reduced, but the protection against death, serious illness and hospital visits is still there. This is very important for health systems, even if we still have mild and asymptomatic infections.” Gilbert said.
R. Gupta: we must move to the protection of the most vulnerable groups in society. Vaccines, while they don’t stop infections, keep you from dying.
Ravi Gupta, a professor of clinical microbiology at the University of Cambridge, believes it is pragmatic to take the view that vaccines in countries like PAR will prevent serious illness and death rather than help build herd immunity.
“It is necessary to move to the protection of the most vulnerable groups in society. Vaccines, although they do not stop infections, do not allow dying, ”said R. Gupta.
It’s true, he said, that in countries where millions of people have already been vaccinated, such as the United States or the United Kingdom, problems with coronavirus mutations should not arise. However, “as travel will resume one day, it can be difficult to stop these varieties.”
Another study by Oxford researchers shows that the vaccine is more effective against the British strain of coronavirus, with an efficacy falling to 84%. up to 75%
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