Officials in the U.K. and Australia tried to reassure their citizens about the efficacy of the AstraZeneca–Oxford University COVID-19 vaccine, after South African authorities decided to halt its rollout due to “limited protection” against the virus’ local variant.
- South African health minister Zweli Mkhize said on Sunday that the country would temporarily halt the planned deployment of the vaccine, after a clinical trial determined that it didn’t protect against mild and moderate illness due to a local and fast-spreading variant of the virus.
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U.K. vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi, however, said that the public could have confidence in the AstraZeneca
AZN,
+0.19% shot, which has proven efficient against the dominant strains in the U.K. -
Australian health minister Greg Hunt insisted that “there is currently no evidence to indicate a reduction in the effectiveness of either the AstraZeneca or Pfizer
PFE,
-0.37% vaccines in preventing severe disease and death.” - Other governments, such as France and Germany, have so far restricted the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine for people over 65, while Switzerland has rejected its use altogether.
Read: AstraZeneca vaccine may reduce spread by 67% — and protection remains over 3-month dosage gap
The outlook: Most reservations about the AstraZeneca–Oxford vaccine stem from insufficient data about its use in the older population. It is up to the company to prove doubters wrong in the coming months, as it gathers more data about efficacy in all age groups.
