It seems only 2,700 vaccine volunteers had the Oxford/Astrazeneca initial half-dose - followed by a full dose - (in the UK) 'by accident' where the efficiacy rate is said to be '90%'. In Brazil, where the other candidates were given a full initial dose, it only had 62% effectiveness against Covid19. In other words, the result is purely 'accidental' and not by design, eschewing normal 'scientific method'. Other criticism is that we only have Astrazeneca press release but not the protocols of the vaccine trials design, as we do for the other two major vaccines recently released - Pfizer and Moderna, each citing circa 95% effectiveness.
Whilst it is admirable the speed it has been brought to the regulators before going onto the market - and it has been hinted the US FDA will not pass it - has it been produced too hastily? The UK has already ordered upfront 100m doses so has a sunk cost and of course, the press has to be careful not to trigger the anti-vaxxers.
Astrazeneca has announced it will be issued at cost price to third world countries - implying a small profit from others - but could this be because they have been gazumped by Pfizer/BionTech and Moderna, of which the EU via Ursula von Leyen, the President of the EU Commission, has ordered the Moderna version - costing twelve times as much per dose. Could Astrazeneca be just offloading its vaccines, of which millions have already been produced in readiness, to the poorer countries of the world - plus the UK, where there is talk of it being mandatory - whilst the first world EU and the USA get the Pfizer and Moderna ones?
Fierce Biotech
Whilst, of course, penicillin, too, was 'discovered by accident' by Sir Alexander Fleming, it wasn't till at least over fifteen years later or more that penicillin was released to the public as a generic antibiotic, one of the greatest medical triumphs of the 20th century.
