AstraZeneca announced that its vaccine is 79% effective and poses no risk of clots after trials in the United States

AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine is 79% effective in preventing disease and does not increase risk of blood clotsThe biotech firm said Monday, following its phase 3 efficacy trials in the United States.

The vaccine was also 80% effective for people 65 and older, he said. Several countries had suspended the drug from the elderly due to a lack of data in older participants in previous trials.

Although the AstraZeneca vaccine has been licensed in more than 50 countries around the world, it has yet to be given the green light in the United States.. The new study included 30,000 volunteers, of whom 20,000 received the vaccine and the rest a placebo.

The vaccine was 79% effective in preventing symptomatic COVID-19 and 100% effective in preventing severe cases and hospitalizations. The researchers noted that the vaccine had been effective in all age groups, including the elderly, which had not been established in previous studies in other countries.

The first data from the study is part of the information AstraZeneca must send to the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA).. An FDA advisory committee will hold a public debate on the drug’s evidence before deciding whether or not to allow emergency use of the vaccine.

Scientists are awaiting the results of the US study in the hopes that this will clear up some of the confusion about the vaccine’s real effectiveness.

Britain has cleared the vaccine based on partial results from trials in Britain, Brazil and South Africa which indicated 70% efficacy.. But those results were affected by a manufacturing flaw that caused some participants to receive only half a dose for their first injection, a mistake the researchers did not initially recognize.

Later, more questions were asked about the protection it offered to the elderly and the waiting time between the two doses. Some European countries, such as Germany, France and Belgium, initially avoided giving it to the elderly and only changed policies when new data emerged suggesting that it also protects the elderly.

More than a dozen countries, mostly in Europe, temporarily suspended use of the AstraZeneca vaccine last week after reports linking it to blood clots.. On Thursday, the European Medicines Agency concluded after an investigation that the vaccine did not increase the risk of blood clots in general, although it could not rule out that it was linked to two very rare classes of clots.

France, Germany, Italy and other countries resumed use of the vaccine on Friday, and several high-ranking politicians welcomed it to reaffirm that it was safe.

With information from the AP and AFP

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