The vaccine, developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca, not only protects people from serious illness and death, but also delays the transmission of the virus, according to a new study – a finding that highlights the importance of mass vaccination. a way out of the pandemic.
Researchers at Oxford University measured the impact on the transmission by looking for participants each week to detect signs of the virus. If there is no virus, someone cannot spread it, even if someone is infected. And they have a 67 percent decrease in positive swabs among those vaccinated.
The results, outlined by researchers from Oxford and AstraZeneca in a manuscript not reviewed by the peer, found that the vaccine could reduce transmission by nearly two-thirds.
Matt Hancock, the British health secretary, praised the results on Wednesday as ‘absolutely superior’.
“We now know that the Oxford vaccine will also reduce transmission and that it will help us all to emerge from this pandemic,” he said. Hancock said in an interview with the BBC on Wednesday morning.
The results, he said, “should give everyone confidence that this stabbing not only works to keep you safe, but to prevent you from transmitting the virus to others.”
Some scientists look at the limited information released, warning that more analysis of the data is needed before such broad conclusions can be confirmed.
“While this would be very welcome news, we need more information before it can be confirmed, and therefore it is important that we all continue to take measures that go into vaccination,” said Dr. Doug Brown, CEO of the British Society for Immunology.
The researchers from Oxford and AstraZeneca also found that a single dose of the vaccine was 76 percent effective in preventing Covid-19. The data were measured the three months after the first shot was given, not an initial period of three weeks required to activate the protection.
The encouraging results support the strategy put in place by Britain and other countries to give as many first doses of vaccines as possible, and raise concerns that people will receive their second doses later than initially planned.
The latest data does not affect the debate or the doses of the two vaccines authorized in the United States, Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, should be further expanded, as the data on the candidate of AstraZeneca can not be generalized to other vaccines.
Some scientists have called on the United States to follow the lead of Britain and other countries that have decided to delay the second dose of vaccines by up to 12 weeks. But U.S. federal officials opposed it, saying such a move would not be supported by clinical trials of the two vaccines currently available in the country. Tuesday’s results could increase pressure on U.S. health officials to postpone the second doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, although the country has not yet approved it.
The vaccine was more effective when the interval between the two shots was longer than the originally intended four-week gap, Oxford and AstraZeneca researchers found. Among clinical trial participants who received two doses with standard strength of at least three months apart, the vaccine was 82 percent effective, compared with 55 percent effective when the doses were given less than six weeks apart.
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Answers to your vaccine questions
At present, more than 150 million people can be vaccinated – almost half of the population. But each state makes the final decision about who goes first. The country’s 21 million health workers and three million residents of long-term care facilities were the first to qualify. In mid-January, federal officials called on all states to be eligible for all ages 65 and older and for adults of any age with medical conditions at risk of becoming seriously ill or to Covid-19 to die. Adults in the general population are at the back of the queue. If federal and state health officials can clear up bottlenecks in the distribution of vaccines, everyone 16 years and older will be eligible as early as spring or early summer. The vaccine has not been approved in children, although studies are underway. It can take months for a vaccine to be available to anyone under the age of 16. Visit your health website for recent information on vaccination policies in your area.
You do not have to pay anything out of pocket to get the vaccine, although you will be asked for insurance information. If you do not have insurance, you should still receive the vaccine free of charge. Congress passed this spring legislation that prohibits insurers from applying any cost sharing, such as a co-payment or deductible. It was based on additional protection that pharmacies, doctors and hospitals prevented from patients, including those who were uninsured. Nevertheless, health experts are concerned that patients could end up in loopholes that make them vulnerable to surprising bills. This can happen to those who charge a doctor’s fee along with their vaccine, or Americans who have certain types of health coverage that do not fall under the new rules. If you get your vaccine at a doctor’s office or an urgent clinic, talk to them about possible hidden charges. To make sure you do not get a surprise bill, this is the best way to get your vaccine at a vaccination center or local pharmacy once the shots are more available.
It must be determined. It is possible that Covid-19 vaccinations will become an annual event, just like the flu shot. Or it could be that the benefits of the vaccine last longer than a year. We have to wait and see how durable the protection against the vaccines is. To determine this, vaccinated researchers are monitoring people to look for “breakthrough cases” – those who become ill with Covid-19 despite being vaccinated. This is a sign of weakening of protection and will give researchers clues as to how long the vaccine will last. They will also monitor the levels of antibodies and T cells in the blood of vaccines to determine if and when a booster shot is needed. It is possible that people need boosters every few months, once a year or only every few years. It’s just a matter of waiting for the data.
A vaccination strategy that delivers doses by three months may be ‘best for rolling out a pandemic vaccine if stocks are limited in the short term,’ the researchers wrote.
The newly released study builds on data released late last year, and found that the vaccine was 62 percent effective when given as two standard strength doses. In the initial findings, the efficacy of the vaccine was much higher, at 90 percent, when the first dose of the vaccine was given at half strength.
Oxford and AstraZeneca researchers initially attributed the different efficacy levels to the lower strength of the initial dose. But they gradually came to a different conclusion: the amount of time between doses was the more likely explanation.
In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration is awaiting data from a clinical trial that enrolled about 30,000 participants, mostly Americans. Results of the study are expected later this month.
The study is expected to provide AstraZeneca with enough safety data to enable it to obtain permission to provide the emergency vaccine by early March.
The United States has agreed to buy 300 million doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine, but neither the company nor the federal government have said when and in what quantities the doses will be available after the vaccine is approved.