AstraZeneca and Oxford University will resume their trials of Covid-19 vaccine. It was paused due to a reported side effect in a patient in UK.
AstraZeneca mentioned on Tuesday that, studies had paused because it was investigating whether the adverse reaction was linked with the vaccine or not. But on Saturday, the university said it has been marked safe to continue. The news of the trials resuming back was welcomed by Health Secretary Matt Hancock.
“This pause shows we will always put safety first. We will back our scientists to deliver an effective vaccine as soon as safely possible,” Health Secretary mentioned.
The university also stated that it was “expected” that “some participants will become unwell” in large trials such as this one. Not every healthy body would not try to resist it at first but eventually the vaccine starts to do it’s work.
The studies would resume following the recommended rules of an independent safety review committee and the UK regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency which are as follows:
- UK ‘must avoid party weekend’ ahead of new rules
- Oxford vaccine trial paused as participant falls ill
- Oxford coronavirus vaccine triggers immune response
Also, there would be no disclosing of information about the patient’s illness to maintain the confidentiality reason.
Previously the New York Times reported that a volunteer in the UK trial had been diagnosed with transverse myelitis, an inflammatory syndrome that affects the spinal cord caused by viral infection.
Testing and statements regarding the Vaccine:
The World Health Organization (WHO) stated nearly 180 vaccine candidates are being tested around the world. But respite testing, all of them have not yet completed clinical trials.
According to theory, it would be the first vaccine that might hit the market first. After it completes it’s successful phase 1 and 2 testing, it would move to stage 3 which would involve 30,000 participants.
Participants are from US as well as from UK, Brazil and South Africa. Phase 3 trials for vaccines often involve thousands of participants from all over the world to cover variety of the genes and can last several years.
The government’s chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, told the Downing Street press conference on Wednesday regarding what happened in the Oxford trial was “not unusual”.
Recently, Prof Sir Mark Walport, a member of the government’s scientific advisory group sage, has warned about UK being on the verge of losing control of the virus.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “You’ve only got to look across the Channel to see what is happening in France and what’s happening in Spain.”
Official figures released on Saturday showed a further increase of 3,497 people who tested positive with the virus in the UK. The number of daily covid cases have been more than 3000.
Basically the overall number of confirmed cases so far is 365,174. Meanwhile, the government figures revealed that nine people have died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19. It brings the UK death toll to 41,623. A total of 221 people tested positive for the virus in the past 24 hours – the highest daily figure since 8 May, when there were 225 positive tests.
