Oxford vaccine is up to 90% effective in preventing coronavirus, tests show

[Gimme More 35,802]

The Oxford vaccine is up to 90% effective in preventing COVID-19, according to tests on thousands of volunteers.

The result compares with the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, which were recently shown to be 95% and 94.5% effective respectively.

The vaccine, codenamed AZD1222, was developed at Oxford University with support from the pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca.

"We have a vaccine for the world," Professor Andrew Pollard, chief investigator of the Oxford Vaccine Trial at Oxford, said.

He added: "It's a really exciting day."

For one course of dosing - where people were given a half dose of AZD1222, followed by a full measure at least a month after - there was an efficacy rate of 90%.

When two full doses were given at least a month apart, the Oxford inoculation had an efficacy of 62%.

A total of 2,741 people were on the course that proved 90% effective, while 8,895 were given two full doses.

When all the results are tabulated, the average efficacy of the vaccine works out to 70%.

Professor Pollard went on: "We think that by giving smaller first dose we are setting up the immune response better to respond. We will dig in more to that. We have started work this morning."

He added: "It's critical to understand what everyone is measuring. What counts as COVID disease varies between different protocols.

"If you are only counting hospitalisations then we would have bigger efficacy. We count mild disease and that is much harder to protect against."

The results will be submitted to a scientific journal for peer review within 24 hours.

Speaking to Kay Burley this morning, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: "This is really encouraging news of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine that obviously we've been backing since the start.

"I'm really very pleased, I really welcome these figures."

Mr Hancock added that he was expecting the information to be sent to the regulator to make sure it is safe.

He added: "We've got 100 million doses on order and should all that go well, the bulk of the rollout will be in the new year.

"So having two vaccines that appear to have effectiveness, done right, in the 90% range is really really good news. Fantastic news."

Source: Sky News (UK)

The Oxford vaccine is based on another virus, which has been adapted to carry a payload from the coronavirus

[Blastertoyo 22,734]

Inject me baby I’m a free

bit 

[Fish 6,259]

so its 70% or 90% 

 

not clear. anyway 70% is still good 

[AndrewGr 6,022]

I don't want any more teasers, I just want the vaccine right here right now. 

This feels like #2019RadioIsOurs