How effective is the Astrazeneca Vaccine?
News reports today, 13th January 2021, are stating reports such as:
Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine ‘is not good enough’.
Phase three clinical trials show the AstraZeneca is around 62 per cent effective in preventing COVID-19.
Infectious Disease expert Professor Ananda-Rajah said the AstraZeneca results showed the vaccine would not be effective in creating herd immunity against COVID-19.
She thinks it should be at least 70 or 80 per cent.”
Other trials of the AstraZeneca have shown results of up to 90%. (But these seem to be ignored, positive news is not as interesting as negative news.)
Australia’s Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly said that trials have shown varying results between 62% and 90%, giving a rate of around 75%, when looking at ALL results.
The news reports have picked the lowest result, and said “Around 62%“, ignoring the better results up to 90%.
We also see reports in the media to get the vaccine out faster, while the real experts wanted it delayed to ensure a decision is made based on the more accurate results.
A report from the BBC
The UK government has ordered 100 million doses of the vaccine. The vaccine was approved for use in the UK, on 30 December and the first doses were given five days later.
Oxford University-AstraZeneca vaccine
The UK roll-out of the Oxford vaccine began on 5 January 2021. It was approved late in 2020 after trials showed that it stopped 70% of people developing Covid symptoms.
There is also intriguing data that suggests perfecting the dose could increase protection up to 90%.
This could give Australia access to knowledge on the vaccine, based on massive usage/testing in the UK.
Trials showed the Pfizer vaccine was 95% effective, but there were differences in the way the trials were carried out, so directly comparing the two results is difficult.
And it’s important to remember that even the lower 62% figure is a better result than the best flu jab, which is about 50% effective.
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Co-developed by the University of Oxford, preliminary data shows the vaccine is around 70% effective compared to Pfizer and Moderna’s mRNA vaccines that have shown 95% and 94% efficacy, respectively.
racgp.org.au/newsgp
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AZD1222, also known as the Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccine, Covishield, or ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 is a COVID-19 vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca given by intramuscular injection.