Covid-19: The Oxford University vaccine was shown to be 70% effective.

A large-scale trial found that vaccines developed by the University of Oxford helped prevent 70% of people from developing Covid-19 symptoms.

This is considered a victory and a disappointment after the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines showed 95% protection.

However, the Oxford photo is much cheaper and easier to store and transport to all corners of the world than the other two.

Therefore, this vaccine will continue to play a key role in addressing the pandemic, if approved by regulators.

There is also promising data showing that improving dosage can help increase efficacy by 90%.

The UK government has reserved 100 million doses of the Oxford vaccine, enough to vaccinate 50 million people.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “The overwhelming news is that the Oxford vaccine has shown efficacy in trials.

“There are still a lot of security checks ahead, but here are the big results.”

The Oxford researchers developed the vaccine for about 10 months, a process that typically takes a decade.

“Today’s announcement takes us one step further to the stage where vaccines can be used to end the devastation caused by this,” said Professor Sarah Gilbert, team leader from the University of Oxford. [virus] why.”

More than 20,000 volunteers participated in the trial, half in the UK and the rest in Brazil.

There were 30 cases of Covid infection in which they had received two doses of the vaccine and 101 cases in which they received a placebo.

The vaccine was active with 70% protection, the researchers said.

When the volunteers received two “high” doses, the protection was 62%, but this number increased to 90% when the people received a “low” dose followed by a high dose. It is not clear why this difference exists.

“We are really satisfied with these results,” Professor Andrew Pollard, who led the trial, told the BBC.

He says the 90% efficiency data is “convincing” and means “we will have to administer more doses.”

Professor Pollard said that the group that took a low dose followed by a high dose had lower levels of asymptomatic infection than the group that took two high doses, “which means we can block viral travel.”

In the UK, 4 million doses are already available and there will be 96 million more.

But nothing will happen until the vaccine is approved by regulators who will evaluate the safety and efficacy of the vaccine and its production to high standards. This will take place over the next several weeks.

The UK, however, is ready to push the button for its unprecedented mass immunity campaign that goes beyond annual seasonal flu shots and childhood vaccines.

People living in nursing homes and their staff will take priority, followed by medical staff and people over 80 years of age. After that, there will be other age groups.

The vaccine is a genetically modified common cold virus that is used to infect chimpanzees.

It has been modified to prevent human infection and contains a part of the corona virus, the part known as the spiny protein.

Once introduced into the body, it will begin to produce the spiny protein of the corona virus, causing the immune system to recognize the risk and initiate a response.

When the immune system is in actual contact with the virus, the immune system knows what to do.

After both Pfizer and Moderna produced vaccines that were 95% effective against Covid-19, the 70% figure was relatively disappointing.

However, just a month ago, any vaccine with more than 50% protection was considered a victory.

The vaccine can also be stored at refrigerated temperatures, which means it can be distributed to all corners of the world, unlike the Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, which must be stored at much cooler temperatures. .

Oxford’s manufacturing partner AstraZeneca is preparing to produce three billion doses worldwide.

The Oxford vaccine costs around £ 3, much cheaper than the Pfizer (£ 15) and Moderna (£ 25) vaccines.

Vaccines are what we’ve been waiting for all year and having to put a blockade is waiting until they give us the vaccine.

However, producing enough vaccines and then vaccinating tens of millions of people in the UK and billions around the world remains a huge challenge.

Life will not return to normal for a while, but the situation is sure to improve dramatically as those most at risk are protected.

The people who died in the first outbreak were mostly older than 80 and people in residences such as nursing homes. Protect those people and the situation will be surprisingly different.

Health Minister Matt Hancock told BBC Breakfast that “we will get closer to normal” for the summer, but that “all we need is to take care of each other until we can make progress.” declare that vaccine. “