As large-scale vaccine trials are winding up for most of the COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers, efforts have worked up to speed for the manufacturers which are yet to declare results of their trials.
According to a report, the ongoing trial of Oxford is showing an efficacy of 70% with experts predicting it go up to 90% at the end of the trials. However, not only Oxford’s vaccine is late in concluding their large-scale trial but also its efficacy is a bit less than the vaccine candidates of Moderna and Pfizer both of which has 95% efficacy.
The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is some real life superhero shit:
– AZ won’t take a profit on the vaccine till pandemic is over
– Stored in normal refridgerators
– 10% of the cost ($5) of other vaccines
– 70-90% effectiveThey are going to save millions of lives without profit
— immad (@immad) November 23, 2020
Experts are also hailing this vaccine as an affordable one for most people as its dose will be cheaper to get and also it requires less stringent storage conditions accompanied with extended shelf life which means that this vaccine has the potential to be transported to the farthest corners of the world and still be affordable to transport, store, and administer.
Many experts are eyeing this vaccine as the game changer in the fight against pandemic. The chief scientist behind this vaccine has already called it a good news as ,”The announcement today takes us another step closer to the time when we can use vaccines to bring an end to the devastation (brought on by Covid-19).”
This vaccine has been produced by the coordinated efforts of Oxford University and AstraZeneca and they have already taken an early order in excess of 100 million shots by the United Kingdom as the UK Prime Minister has called it, “incredibly exciting news.”
Both organizations have claimed that they are ramping up their facilities to provide a staggering 3 billion jabs for the rest of the world in the year 2021. In US, this vaccine will be available by mid-December.
Oxford and AstraZeneca have developed this vaccine in an astonishing time of a little more than 10 months and since then it has gone through two large scale vaccine trials in UK and Brazil respectively which enrolled almost 20,000 volunteers from both countries.
As Oxford/AstraZeneca becomes the latest Covid vaccine to publish trial results, how does it compare to others?https://t.co/rVON18544g pic.twitter.com/hhYvlvsxpt
— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) November 23, 2020
So far in the results, the experimental group reported 30 Covid-19 cases after a dose of vaccine however the placebo group reported 101 positive cases of Covid-19. According to the experts even these figures show a better performance of this vaccine than the seasonal flu shot that is administered.
Although nobody in the trials got severe Covid-19 infection or was admitted to a hospital to get intensive treatment however, in another similar trial including 3000 participants the efficacy jumped up to 90% when the dosage of the vaccine was divided into a half first does and a full second dose.
A lot of questions about why lower first dose of Oxford vaccine should lead to better protection.
In press briefing just now, @ajpollard1 said: “We think that by giving a smaller first dose, that we're priming the immune system differently we're setting it up better to respond.”— Kai Kupferschmidt (@kakape) November 23, 2020
This has sparked interest in the experts as well as prompted the manufacturers to increase their capacity as more doses would mean they’d have to distribute more vaccine doses in future.
Oxford and AstraZeneca have 4 million shots of this vaccine ready at their disposal, but they are bound by law to undergo formal certification from the regulators which is in process and is expected to happen in the next few weeks.
Having a 3rd vaccine with such strong early results (incl 1 regimen w 90% efficacy) is stunning.
AZ/Oxford vax:
– Regimen 1 (1/2 dose then, 1 mo later, full dose): 90%
– Regimen 2 (2 full doses): 62%
– Refrigerator storage
– Just $2.50 per doseNow let's get thru winter alive https://t.co/FSkJwYKbcp
— Atul Gawande (@Atul_Gawande) November 23, 2020