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Kai Kupferschmidt Profile picture
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23 Nov, 4 tweets, 2 min read
Another day, another press release of important #covid19 vaccine results:
This time Oxford/AstraZeneca trial with more than 20,000 participants in UK and Brazil

70% efficacy
but:
62% after two doses given a month apart
90% if first shot is half-dose

astrazeneca.com/media-centre/p…
Vaccine can be stored and distributed more easily because it only requires normal refrigeration (2-8 degrees C)
Submission for regulatory approval being prepared now
Up to 3 billion doses could be manufactured in 2021
Data „suggest that this half dose and full dose regimen could help to prevent transmission of the virus, evidenced by lower rates of asymptomatic infection in the vaccinees, with further information to become available when trial data are next evaluated.“
ox.ac.uk/news/2020-11-2…
All the usual caveats apply:
This is a press release not a peer reviewed article
Data is preliminary and could change
Unclear how long protection lasts
Rare adverse events could still be spotted
etc...

Very curious to see more data on this vaccine!

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More from @kakape

Kai Kupferschmidt Profile picture
24 Nov
Another week, another sad record.

Last week @WHO recorded the highest weekly numbers yet in this pandemic:
More than 4 million new cases
More than 67,000 new deaths Image
@WHO The good news is that the rapid increase in global case numbers has slowed down.

The deaths are still catching up, however. In the last four weeks reported deaths were:
45,051
54,835
59,699
67,221
@WHO The countries reporting the most cases last week:
US: >1.1 million cases (+14%)
India: >280,000 (-8%)
Italy: >230,000 (-3%)
Brazil: >200,000 (+17%)
France: >170,000 (-16%)

That mirrors the global situation with cases decreasing in Europe and increasing in the Americas.
Read 6 tweets
Kai Kupferschmidt Profile picture
24 Nov
Some new data came out today on the “other” #covid19 vaccine, Russia’s Sputnik V:
Press release claims efficacy of
91,4% - 28 days after 1st shot
95% - 42 days after 1st shot

Apart from usual caveats it is important to note that this comes from analysis of just 39 infections: Image
My colleague @sciencecohen wrote about the first batch of results earlier this month and why they didn’t pass the “smell test" sciencemag.org/news/2020/11/r…
@sciencecohen In press conference Kirill Dimitriev, CEO of Russian Direct Investment Fund, says vaccine will be produced in lyophilized form to be stored at 2-8 degrees C.
Vaccine to be delivered internationally from January 2021 for up to 500 million people that year. Less than $10 per shot.
Read 4 tweets
Kai Kupferschmidt Profile picture
23 Nov
“The light at the end of this long, dark tunnel is growing brighter”, says @DrTedros at @WHO #covid19 presser. "There is now real hope that vaccines – in combination with other tried and tested public health measures – will help to end the #COVID19 pandemic.”
@DrTedros @WHO No vaccines have ever been developed this fast and the ”scientific community has set a new standard for vaccine development”, says @DrTedros. "Now the international community must set a new standard for access."
@DrTedros @WHO "The urgency with which #covid19 vaccines have been developed must be matched by the same urgency to distribute them fairly”, says @DrTedros. “There is now a real risk that the poorest and most vulnerable will be trampled in the stampede for vaccines."
Read 15 tweets
Kai Kupferschmidt Profile picture
23 Nov
A lot of questions about why lower first dose of Oxford vaccine should lead to better protection.
In press briefing just now, @ajpollard1 said: “We think that by giving a smaller first dose, that we're priming the immune system differently we're setting it up better to respond.”
“What we don't know at this moment is whether that difference is in the quality, or the quantity of the immune response”, he says. More work to do he adds. “We've already started some work this morning to try to answer some of those questions.”
Sarah Gilbert says lower first dose may mimic natural infection better. “we're a group of academics, so we're delighted to have something more academic to study on this.”
Read 4 tweets
Kai Kupferschmidt Profile picture
22 Nov
Finally finished @deerbrian‘s book on Andrew Wakefield. Not easy finding time to read a book this year as a science journalist, but this one was a must: The inside story of uncovering one of the biggest scientific frauds of the 20th century (a friend calls it ‚journalism porn‘).
I thought I already knew most of the story behind the MMR scare, Wakefield‘s infamous, retracted Lancet paper and his anti-vax crusade. But - as usual - it turns out that the complexities and texture of real life are way more surprising and satisfying in full technicolor detail.
The book does a great job explaining all the things that were wrong with Wakefield’s work but also some aspects that I had never really understood incl. for instance Wakefield’s re-emergence as a “filmmaker”.
Read 8 tweets
Kai Kupferschmidt Profile picture
20 Nov
I feel a bit guilty sometimes as a German science journalist for tweeting almost exclusively in English and so rarely highlighting the work of great German colleagues or scientists on twitter, so today’s #ff for those who speak German (just a selection, of course):
There’s @maithi_nk who has done an outstanding job most prominently in some very smart and funny videos
@Fischblog has been excellent (though someone should investigate whether he has engaged in insider trading of toilet paper)
The team at @zeitonline_wis has done a great job covering #covid19, interviewing many key figures not just in Germany with great pieces from @jaSimmank and @flor8i
@LambrechtO and @ChBaars have started a vaccine podcast that I’m only beginning to listen to now but I trust them
Read 5 tweets

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