Studies show that COVID-19 vaccine may reduce viral infections

AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine not only prevents people from becoming seriously ill, but also reduces viral infections and provides strong protection for three months with a single dose, researchers said on Wednesday. I mentioned in the promising order of the suppression campaign.

Preliminary findings from Oxford University, co-developer of the vaccine, establish a controversial strategy by the UK government to delay the second shot by up to 12 weeks so that more people can be given the first dose quickly. There is likely to be. So far, the recommended period between doses has been 4 weeks.

This study also has the potential to bring scientists closer to the answer to one of the big questions about vaccination drives. vaccine Do you actually suppress the spread of coronavirus?

It’s not clear how the findings could affect the other two major ones. vaccine Used in the West, Pfizer and Moderna.

In the United States, Dr. Anthony Fauci, a top expert in infectious diseases in the United States, rejected the idea of ​​deliberately delaying second shots and said the United States would obtain data from clinical trials “according to science.” Two doses of the Pifzer and Moderna vaccines are to be given at intervals of 3 and 4 weeks.

Nonetheless, the study appears to be good news in a desperate effort to stop the spread of the virus, and also suggests ways to mitigate vaccine deficiencies and fire more quickly.

Manufacturers of all three vaccines say their injections have proven effective in the 70% to 95% range in clinical trials that protect people from diseases caused by the virus. However, it was unclear whether the vaccine could control the transmission of the virus, that is, whether the vaccinated person could acquire the virus and spread it to others without getting sick.

As a result, experts say that even vaccinated people should continue to wear masks and stay away from others.

However, Oxford studies have found that vaccines not only prevent serious illness, but also appear to reduce viral infections by two-thirds. This study has not yet been peer reviewed.

Research volunteers received regular nasal swabs. Levels of virus-positive swabs from both asymptomatic and non-symptomatic individuals were 67% lower in the vaccinated group.

“It should have a really beneficial effect on communication,” Oxford senior researcher Sara Gilbert said at a meeting at the New York Academy of Sciences.

Researchers have also investigated how likely vaccinated people are to develop asymptomatic infections. In one subset of volunteers, the vaccinated group had 16 asymptomatic infections and the unvaccinated comparative group had 31.

Pfizer and Moderna are also studying the effects of vaccines on asymptomatic infections.

Only Pfizer and Modana vaccines are used in the United States. The UK uses both AstraZeneca and Pfizer. AstraZeneca is also licensed by the European Union of 27 countries. Pfizer has not approved the UK Government’s decision to extend the time between doses.

Mene Pangalos, executive vice president of biopharmacy research and development at AstraZeneca, said no patients experienced severe COVID-19 or required hospitalization 3 weeks after the first dose, 12 weeks after the first injection. It seemed to be more effective.

“Our data suggest that we want to be as close to 12 weeks as possible,” Pangaros said of the second dose.

British Health Minister Matt Hancock said the study “supports the strategy we took” and confirms that more people were hit by at least one attack. Britain’s decision has been criticized by other European countries as dangerous.

Stephen Evans of the London School of Economics and Tropical Medicine said the study’s proposal to protect people with a single dose for 12 weeks was “useful but not definitive.” ..

He himself said that their study was not designed to investigate vaccine dosing schedules, their conclusions were based on statistical modeling, and they did not follow actual patients over time. Said that he admits.

“It’s certainly not that strong evidence, but there’s no sign that this is wrong,” Evans said of the UK strategy.

Dr. Andrew Pollard, one of the researchers at Oxford University, said scientists also believed that the AstraZeneca vaccine would continue to provide protection against new variants of COVID-19, but data on that. I’m still waiting. The rapidly becoming popular mutant version is alarming all over the world.

“If you need to renew your vaccine, it’s actually a relatively straightforward process. It only takes a few months, not the great effort everyone made last year to carry out a very large trial. “Hmm,” Pollard told the BBC.

Meanwhile, a UN-sponsored program to supply the world’s poorest people with the COVID-19 vaccine is preparing after a troubled start. On Wednesday, the COVAX Facility announced plans to first distribute approximately 100 million times by the end of March and more than 200 million times by the end of June to dozens of countries.

Almost all doses expected in the first phase are from AstraZeneca and its partner, the Indian Serum Institute. This deployment is subject to the World Health Organization’s approval of an emergency use authorization for AstraZeneca. This will be done this month.

About 190 countries and territories participate in COVAX, with wealthy countries scooping up vaccine supplies, sometimes at premium prices.

According to data from Johns Hopkins University, the global pandemic death toll exceeds 2.2 million, including about 447,000 in the United States.

Although the number of new cases per day and the number of Americans in COVID-19 hospitalization in the United States have declined sharply in the past few weeks, deaths are still close to record highs, averaging about 3,100 per day. It is a person. Death often lags behind the infection curve, as it can take weeks to get sick and die of COVID-19.

As the Super Bowl approaches, Fauci warns people not to invite others to the Super Bowl party and tells viewers “just lie down” to avoid turning Sunday’s big game into a superspreader event. I urge you to “cool”.

“I don’t want to party with people I don’t have much contact with,” he told NBC’s “Today” show. “I don’t know if they are infected.”

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Associated Press reporters Jill Lawless, Maria Chen, Jamie Keten, and Ricardo Alonso Zardivar contributed to this report.

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