Coronavirus: AstraZeneca’s US trial questioned; Germany reverses reopening plans

Name: SCMP Explains: What's the difference between the major Covid-19 vaccines?
Uploaded: 2021-03-23T12:23:05.000Z
Duration: 9 min 50 s
Description: SCMP Explains: What's the difference between the major Covid-19 vaccines?

Germany will enter a strict shutdown for five days over Easter amid surging virus rates, Chancellor Angela Merkel said

Meanwhile in the Czech Republic, the world leader in Covid-19 deaths per capita, reinfections are growing fast

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A health worker prepares a dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine to be administered to a patient at a vaccination centre in Italy. Photo: AP

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Published: 8:23pm, 23 Mar 2021Updated: 11:43pm, 23 Mar 2021

Results from a US trial of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine may have included “outdated information” and that could mean the company provided an incomplete view of efficacy data, American federal health officials said early on Tuesday.

AstraZeneca said in a statement that the data it released on Monday included cases up to February 17, as the study rules specified, and that it was continuing to analyse cases that have occurred since then. The company said that a preliminary analysis of data that has continued to roll in was consistent with what it had already reported. It promised an update within 48 hours.

AstraZeneca reported on Monday that its Covid-19 vaccine provided strong protection among adults of all ages in a long-anticipated US study, a finding that some experts hoped would help rebuild public confidence in the shot around the world and move it a step closer to clearance in the US

In the study of more than 30,000 people, the company reported that the vaccine was found to be 79 per cent effective at preventing symptomatic cases of Covid-19 – including in older adults. There were no severe illnesses or hospitalisation among vaccinated volunteers, compared with five such cases in participants who received dummy shots – a small number, but consistent with findings from Britain and other countries that the vaccine protects against the worst of the disease.

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SCMP Explains: What's the difference between the major Covid-19 vaccines?

AstraZeneca also said the study’s independent safety monitors found no serious side effects, including no increased risk of rare blood clots like those identified in Europe, a scare that led numerous countries to briefly suspend vaccinations last week. But just hours after those encouraging results were reported, the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases issued an unusual statement.