another coronavirus vaccine has shown to
be highly effective
britain's oxford university and its
pharmaceutical partners astrazeneca have
published the preliminary results from
large-scale trials
and they show their vaccine is 70
percent effective
at protecting people from the disease
but in a subgroup of volunteers
who received a half dose followed by a
full dose
the effectiveness rose to 90 percent
in the last few weeks pfizer and
biontech and modena published their
results which said that their two dose
vaccines were 95
effective however the oxford vaccine
it's cheaper and easier to store than
the other two vaccines
since it can be stored at fridge
temperature andrew pollard is head of
the oxford vaccine group
he's been telling us about the success
of his vaccine
we're really pleased with these results
what we've found is that
overall in the trials um across the uk
in brazil we've
managed to prevent about 70 percent of
um infections
but importantly in people who were
vaccinated with the new
coronavirus vaccine no one was
hospitalized or had severe disease
so the that's 70 of figure is giving us
an idea about the overall protection
including the mild infections
and intriguingly in one of the groups
that we had where we gave a half dose of
the first dose
and then a full dose we saw 90
protection and so that suggests that
we've got a regimen
of vaccinating that might allow a lot
more doses to be used because we only
need half a dose
for the first one and yet we're seeing
even higher protection
and there's also a really interesting
hint in the data
that that regimen is also um
able to reduce asymptomatic infection
and if that's the case it might allow us
um to get to a point where we can halt
the virus on its tracks
and it can't transmit from person to
person
so i think this is very exciting news
there's there's obviously going to be a
lot more data to come
um over the next month or so but as a
first
interim look at the data i think this is
incredibly positive
that we have a vaccine that could be
distributed
using the normal immunization systems
through fridges
around the world and because it's a
partnership that we set up with
astaxanica that's not for profit
it's going to be affordable uh
everywhere that we can get it
andrew pollard who can't keep the smile
off his face with me as our global
health correspondent naomi grimley we've
still got lots of questions
about this naomi but to start with what
great news yes absolutely and bear in
mind that the food and drug
administration in the u.s was getting
ready
to approve vaccines that had only 50
percent efficacy
so to hear that there's one that has
overall efficacy
of 70 and maybe up to 90 is another good
day
in this crisis what are the implications
for the developing world given we've
just heard
it's cheaper to produce and more
importantly you can store it in the
fridge
indeed that's really important because
one of the big worries with
pfizer and moderna is that they were
going to need special carrying boxes and
special freezers
to get it around the world and of course
when you're trying to get it to hard to
reach communities
particularly in hot countries that is
problematic the big plus with oxford
astrazeneca
is they will be able to piggyback on
food and
drink logistics if you like so already
uh organizations like unicef and the who
are talking to those uh distribution
chains and working out how they can use
them to
to good effect so how quickly will it be
available now well that's really
difficult
to to put a finger on at the moment here
in the uk
we're told that the first four million
doses could be available by the end of
the year
but when we're talking about developing
countries it'll be a much bigger
logistical
operation the good thing again though is
that oxford and astrazeneca
have already done deals with places like
the serum institute in india
also manufactures in places like brazil
so it's already being made
and as soon as it gets approval it can
be used and in terms of the difference
between
this vaccine and others andrew there was
just talking about the lower levels of
asymptomatic infection in one group we
didn't hear that about the other two
vaccines no
that's right oxford's done this
particular monitoring of asymptomatic
cases in its
huge trials and they do think it helps
dampen down
the infection infectiousness of this
disease and prevent
infection altogether and that's really
important because all along in this
crisis the big problem has been
it flies beneath the radar if you like
you and i could be going out for a drink
and not realize
that we're actually infecting each other
okay there's so much good news we've
just discussed
what are the uncertainties still what
don't we know naomi
the big uncertainty with all three of
the vaccines we've heard about so far
is how long we get protection for in a
previous
uh vaccine for mers that's middle east
respiratory syndrome it lasted a year so
we don't know whether it will be as good
as that
or less so