As AstraZeneca is preparing to issue the results of an updated primary analysis, following the concerns of senior officials who previously released information about the vaccine’s effectiveness, including outdated data, questions began to arise about how the public will perceive the injection. The vaccine has already been examined in Europe, where several countries have temporarily suspended use amid concerns about an unmasked link to blood clots.
UK and EU regulatory agencies have found the vaccine to be safe and effective, and countries have resumed implementation, but in the US, where vaccine hesitation was the main concern among authorities who see vaccines as a means of ending with the pandemic, transparency throughout the approval process will remain the key.
“We are always concerned when there is an apparent ‘communication failure’, if you want to use that word, which would increase the already existing levels of vaccine hesitation,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s leading infectious disease expert, during White House COVID-19 briefing on Wednesday. “This is the reason why we want to make sure that we are always completely transparent in everything that happens with regards to messages and vaccines.”
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Fauci said that “at the end of the day” the data indicates that the AstraZeneca vaccine “will end up being a good vaccine”, and the final determination for authorization for emergency use will be in the hands of the FDA.
“When this is done, it will be very transparent,” he said, referring to the FDA process. “Hopefully, this will dispel any hesitation associated with this little bump on the road that we happened to have recently with AstraZeneca.”
The company has indicated that it expects to file an application for emergency use authorization with the FDA in the coming weeks, signaling what would potentially be a fourth vaccine to receive such approval in the U.S. The data, which has since been flagged, is derived from a Phase 3 clinical trial conducted in the USA that indicated a 79% effectiveness in preventing symptomatic infections.
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Developed in conjunction with the University of Oxford, the AstraZeneca jab was created using a modified version of a chimpanzee adenovirus and can remain stored at 2 to 8 degrees Celsius for up to six months. The vaccine is administered in two doses with an interval of four weeks, similar to the Modern spacing.