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“We believe we have found the winning formula and the way to achieve an efficacy that, in two doses, will be as high as the other” vaccines against covid-19, announces general manager Pascal Soriot in the Sunday Times.
The AstraZeneca vaccine provides “100% protection” against all severe forms of COVID-19, says Pascal Soriot.
In the first results of large-scale clinical trials, conducted in the United Kingdom and Brazil, the British laboratory announced in November that its vaccine was effective by an average of 70%, compared with an efficiency of more than 90% of vaccines of the alliance between the United States and Germany. Pfizer / BioNTech and the American company in the field of Modern Biotechnology.
TWO PROTOCOLS
Behind this average efficiency there were big differences in two different protocols.
The vaccine was 90% effective in volunteers who received a half dose for the first time and a full dose booster one month later.
But the effectiveness was only 62% in another group, vaccinated with two full doses.
These results have been criticized for injecting half a dose, by mistake, in a relatively small group in this protocol.
Later, the laboratory announced that its vaccine needed “an additional study”.
The Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine is highly anticipated because it is relatively cheaper and does not need to be stored at as low a temperature as Pfizer / BioNTech, for example minus 70 degrees Celsius.
This facilitates large-scale vaccination in nursing homes.
The United Kingdom, the first Western country to start injecting doses of Pfizer / BioNTech, is counting on this second vaccine and to end the intensification of contamination, attributed in the United Kingdom to a new variant of the new SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.
Faced with this mutation of the virus, “we believe, for now, that the vaccine will continue to be effective,” announces Pascal Soriot.
“But we can’t be sure, so we will run tests,” he said.
Pascal Soriot assures that the new versions are ready for any eventuality, but expresses the hope that they are not necessary.
“We have to be prepared,” he said.
LONDON ORDERS 100 MILLION TWELVE
The UK has ordered 100 million doses of the Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine, of which 40 million will be available by the end of March.
In total, the Boris Johnson administration has provided access to more than 350 million doses by the end of next year, from seven manufacturers since the clinical trial phase.
In total, more than 600,000 people were vaccinated with a first dose of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine.
The success of the UK’s ongoing vaccination campaign is even more crucial as the kingdom is one of the countries hardest hit by COVID-19 in the world, with more than 70,000 deaths and a new wave of contamination.
The authorities attributed this intensification of the disease to a mutation that, according to one study, has a contagiousness of more than 50%, up to 74%.
In the fight against this trend, the British authorities reintroduced a part of the quarantined population to London.
As of Saturday, Scotland and Northern Ireland have gone into isolation.
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