Washington: AstraZeneca insisted Wednesday that its COVID-19 vaccine is strongly effective even after counting additional illnesses in its disputed US study, the latest in an extraordinary public rift with American officials.
In a late-night press release, AstraZeneca said it had recalculated data from that study and concluded the vaccine is 76 per cent effective in preventing symptomatic COVID-19, instead of the 79 per cent it had claimed earlier in the week.
Just a day earlier, an independent panel that oversees the study had accused AstraZeneca of cherry-picking data to tout the protection offered by its vaccine. The panel, in a harsh letter to the company and to US health leaders, said the company had left out some COVID-19 cases that occurred in the study, a move that could erode trust in the science.
Data disputes during ongoing studies usually remain confidential but in an unusual step, the National Institutes of Health publicly called on AstraZeneca to fix the discrepancy.
AstraZeneca had been counting on findings from a predominantly US study of 32,000 people to help rebuild confidence in a vaccine that, despite being widely used in Britain, Europe and other countries, has had a troubled rollout. Previous studies have turned up inconsistent data about its effectiveness, and then last week a scare about blood clots had some countries temporarily pausing inoculations.
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Now the question is whether the company's newest calculations end the tension.
Earlier Wednesday, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious disease expert, told reporters he hoped that when all the data was publicly vetted by federal regulators, it would dispel any hesitancy caused by the spat. He predicted it would “turn out to be a good vaccine.”