AstraZeneca believes its vaccine can protect against severe disease and is adapting it against the 501Y.V2 variant. Prior to widespread circulation of the more contagious variant, the vaccine was showing efficacy of around 75%, researchers said. AstraZeneca said on Saturday that it believed its vaccine could protect against severe disease and that it had already started adapting it against the 501Y.V2 variant. Still, professor Shabir Madhi, lead investigator on the AstraZeneca trial in South Africa, said data on the vaccine were a reality check and that it was time to "recalibrate our expectations of Covid-19 vaccines". It had hoped to roll out the AstraZeneca vaccine to healthcare workers soon after on Monday receiving 1 million doses produced by the Serum Institute of India (SII).

Source: Otago Daily Times February 08, 2021 00:45 UTC